US returns US$300 mil Jho Low-linked funds to Malaysia

(Apr 15): The US returned to Malaysia another $300 million ($424 million) that was recovered as part of the Justice Department’s forfeiture lawsuits targeting assets that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho and his associates bought with funds allegedly stolen from the country’s 1MDB investment fund.

With the latest repatriation, the US has sent US$600 million back to Malaysia as part of the continuing effort to seize and liquidate the assets, including real estate, business investments, art work and jewelry, that Low, commonly known as Jho Low, his family and his cronies acquired with the money they are accused of siphoning from the state fund after it was set up in 2009.

While Low has denied wrongdoing, he and his family last year dropped their defense of the forfeiture lawsuits that have been pending in federal court in Los Angeles, which has allowed the government to seize more than US$700 million in assets. Some of the real estate, including luxury condominiums in New York and mansions in Beverly Hills, have been put on the market.

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