KUALA LUMPUR – Two journalists who exposed Low Taek Jho’s role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal have predicted that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s new administration will intensify efforts to capture the fugitive businessman.
According to Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, Anwar now shoulders the expectations of those seeking for Low, better known as Jho Low, to be brought to justice.
“Under Malaysia’s new government, there could be a change of tone (over efforts to capture Low) because there is still this beating impulse (to achieve) justice (in the 1MDB case).
“Only a billion (dollars) or maybe 20% or less of the money stolen (through 1MDB) has been recovered,” Hope said in episode seven of the Where is Jho Low? series on the Project Brazen channel on Youtube.
He added that based on their sources, Low’s case is now “on the table again” and will not be “swept under the carpet.”
Penang-born Low, 41 – who is wanted for his alleged involvement in international bribery, corruption and money laundering – has been on the run since 2018.
Chiming in, Wright expressed his hopes for Anwar to turn the search for Low into a more “political issue” involving diplomatic initiatives to secure Low’s return to Malaysia.
“(Anwar) becoming prime minister spells perhaps a slightly bigger chance that Malaysia will start to actively ask Chinese authorities to return (Low) home,” he said.
Anwar was sworn in as Malaysia’s 10th prime minister on November 24 after nearly a week of political turmoil following the 15th general election.
The joint authors of Billion Dollar Whale, a book on the 1MDB scandal, had claimed in October that the likelihood of Low openly conducting huge financial dealings in China is highly probable based on company documents they secured.
The duo had earlier claimed that no one in Malaysia was actively pursuing the capture of Low from China, despite assurances by the country’s authorities that they remained committed to the task.
Quoting a source familiar with the upper levels of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist party, the duo asserted that “too many powerful people in Malaysia are connected to Low”.
“As a result, no one in Malaysia really wants Low back because it can become too explosive. Everything that he has done and knows could affect Malaysia.”
When pressed by opposition lawmakers in October on whether the authorities had contacted Wright and Hope, then home minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said that police remain dedicated in their efforts to track down and extradite Low to Malaysia to face criminal charges.
This came after the duo claimed that Low and his family were spotted in Shanghai Disneyland in China in 2019.
Wright and Hope also said in their YouTube video that their research found Low had a company called MingShi Investment Co Ltd in Taiwan since November 2017, of which he was chairman.
They said this would have been after the 1MDB scandal and showed Low’s “unbelievable ability” to continue doing business in various countries. – The Vibes, December 14, 2022
