Jho Low tries to scuttle Rewcastle-Brown's book on 1MDB

The publisher of an upcoming book on 1MDB by Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown has been threatened by London law firm Schillings, who is representing Jho Low.

"The letter threatened the publisher with 'substantial damages' on the basis that the law firm assumed the book would repeat what it called 'defamatory accusations' about Low made on (the) Sarawak Report(website)," wrote Sarawak Report today.

According to Schillings' website, the law firm is described as specialising in solving "reputation problems" or privacy threats.

"We are the only business in the world to deploy – under one roof – intelligence experts, investigators, cyber specialists, risk consultants, lawyers and top people from the military, banking and government," the firm claims.

Sarawak Report said that Schillings' letter had claimed that no comment should be published on Low's involvement in 1MDB prior to the completion of civil proceedings on the company in the US.

The website also said that Schillings letter to its book publisher also alleged that the website would repeat allegations presently circulating in the press and social media, which the firm claims "are part of a politically motivated campaign by the present Malaysian government".

"Sarawak Report maintains that, to the contrary, our allegations are heavily documented, detailed and corroborated. Moreover, Low has not once contacted Sarawak Report to contest anything written by this site since it broke the original story in February 2015, detailing how US$700 million, supposedly paid by 1MDB into a joint venture with the company PetroSaudi, was in fact, detoured into the Coutts Zurich account of the Seychelles company Good Star, which is owned by Jho Taek Low," said the website.

Despite the threat, Sarawak Report said that the book – titled The Sarawak Report – will still be sent to those who had pre-purchased it. The title will also be sold online.

The Sarawak Report is one of two upcoming books on Low and 1MDB, the other being Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World, authored by Wall Street Journal writers Bradley Hope and Tom Wright. -Mkini