JHO LOW DUPED CRAZY-MATERIALISTIC HOLLYWOOD INTO THINKING HE WAS CONNECTED TO ‘THE WEALTHIEST & MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE ON THE PLANET’ – BUT IT WAS ‘KLEPTOCRATS’ NAJIB & ROSMAH WHO WERE HIS REAL ‘PATRONS’

LITTLE was known about Low Taek Jho but guests at his lavish 31st birthday party at a Las Vegas hotel in Nov 2012 did not seem to care, said authors of Billion Dollar Whale in excerpts of the book published in the Wall Street Journal today.

It was during the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the US was in a recession and even Hollywood celebrities were looking to re-make their fortunes or opportunities for gigs that would pay well.

Low, better known as Jho Low, appeared to be that person with unlimited cash who could be an important connector, said the book’s prologue in setting the stage for the story of the world’s most complex, extraordinary fraud.

“In the aftermath of the US financial crisis, they all wanted a piece of Mr Low. … (It added) to the allure of a spendthrift Asian billionaire like Mr Low,” Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope wrote.

The book, which is now in bookstores worldwide and whose first print run is reportedly sold out, studies the complexities of billion-dollar fraud committed using Malaysian state investment firm, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), with Low at the centre as mastermind.

The book opens with Low’s birthday party at the Palazzo hotel in Las Vegas, in one of the Chairman Suites which cost US$25,000 per night, before the event moves to another location that was one-half circus-themed and the other a chic nightclub.

Guests at the party included Pras Michél, a former member of the ‘90s hip-hop trio the Fugees, hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz and husband of Alicia Keys, actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton.

Also present were Tim Leissner, the Goldman Sachs banker at the centre of 1MDB deals with Low, and people described as powerful figures from the Middle East.

The book cites Las Vegas Sun gossip columnist Robin Leach who said he was puzzled that he could write about the party but not name the host; an unusual condition given that the rich would usually want to be known for their spending.

Pop singer Britney Spears was reportedly paid a “six-figure sum” for a brief appearance to jump out of a fake birthday cake to sing “Happy Birthday” to Low.

Low’s birthday presents were jaw-dropping: a red Lamborghini, three Ducati motorcycles and a $2.5 million Bugatti Veyro.

After midnight, Low went back to the Palazzo hotel and gambled until Sunday afternoon.

The party was reported by local Las Vegas media, KROQ, which mistakenly called Low a “Chinese” billionaire.

But the authors said who Low really was didn’t seem to matter to his high-flying guests, as he had the money and the connections with “the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet”.

At the time of the party, the DiCaprio movie, The Wolf of Wall Street was still filming and Low was talked about as the man with the money behind the film. Most of his guests thought of him as a member of a rich Asian family.

“He was enabled by his obscure origins and the fact that people had only a vague notion of Malaysia,” the book said, adding that Low was now a fugitive moving between Hong Kong, Macau and China.

Malaysia has charged Low in absentia for money laundering and he has continued to maintain his innocence.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com