‘WE SOMETIMES JOKED IF JHO LOW LOW OWNED THE PLACE’: EVEN CONDO GUARDS KNOW ABOUT 1MDB

KUALA LUMPUR – When Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers raided the apartment of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, today, no one was probably more surprised than the guards on duty at the posh residential block in Jalan Kia Peng.

They have never seen the man who is high on the Malaysian authorities’ wanted list but have nonetheless joked among themselves that maybe he owned one of the units there.

“We have never seen him but sometimes we jokingly ask what if Jho Low owned the place.

“And when the authorities came today we were so shocked our jokes had come true. We may have been guarding a place belonging to a fugitive,” one of the guards told FMT.

He said the guards knew about Jho Low as they had read in social media that he was wanted in connection with the 1MDB probe.

“We are also aware about 1MDB,” he said, adding that he immediately called his family to tell them about his surreal experience today.

He said about seven MACC officers went into the apartment and were inside the unit from 10am to 2pm.

“We don’t know what the officers took but I was told the unit had been converted into an office.

“We understand that the unit had an intecom system before but it was disconnected several months ago,” he said.

The guard said no one had registered at the guard house to enter the unit but they could have used an access card.

A warrant issued by MACC for today’s raid stated that “there are logical reasons to suspect that information on offences under the MACC Act 2009 could be available at the premises”.

Several photos from the raid which were leaked online showed, among others, a paper shredder and a safe inside the unit.

Low and four others are wanted by MACC over allegations that some US$4.5 billion was siphoned from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015.

Earlier this month, the commission requested Low to come forward to assist in investigations into SRC International, a previous subsidiary of 1MDB.

MACC has also asked former SRC managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil Nik Othman, 47, to help with investigations, while urging mystery man Tan Kim Loong, who is alleged to be the signatory for numerous bank accounts overseas, where billions of ringgit originating from 1MDB were laundered, to also assist.

It was earlier reported that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had rejected an offer for Malaysian investigators to grill Low in Dubai.

– FMT