A fugitive Malaysian tycoon who once partied with Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton and Usher has struck a $100 million deal with the federal government to settle two lawsuits alleging he used embezzled funds to buy luxury art.
US authorities said Jho Lo, who is believed to now be living in China, agreed to hand over paintings by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol, as well as a luxury apartment in Paris, as part of the settlement.
The Justice Department said in a statement that Low will also turn over $67 million in property and cash that he laundered in Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong.
The 42-year-old Wharton graduate is accused of amassing a string of assets using money from 1MDB, Malaysia’s troubled government-backed investment firm that he ran to fund his notoriously lavish lifestyle.
Low, also known as Low Taek Jho, was a fixture on New York’s party scene in the mid-2010s, but his playboy image was shattered when the Obama administration announced a plan in 2016 to recoup more than $1 billion in illegal profits.
Prosecutors have accused Low of paying billions of dollars in bribes to secure business for 1MDB, which were laundered in the United States through expensive real estate investments and funding for Hollywood films.
He is said to have pumped money into the blockbuster film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” in which DiCaprio played notorious stockbroker Jordan Belfort.
“More than $4.5 billion of 1MDB’s funds are alleged to have been misappropriated by senior 1MDB officials and associates, including Low, through a criminal conspiracy involving international money laundering and bribery,” the Justice Department said.
“1MDB was established by the Malaysian government to promote Malaysia’s economic development through global partnerships and foreign direct investment. Its funds are to be used to improve the welfare of Malaysians,” it added. “This agreement does not exempt any entity or individual from any criminal charges that have been or may be indicted.”
Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng was convicted last year of violating U.S. anti-bribery laws, money laundering and unlawfully disregarding Goldman’s accounting controls.
He was sentenced by a Brooklyn court to 10 years in prison after a seven-week trial in March 2023 for embezzling about $35 million in bribes and was extradited to Malaysian authorities.
However, Lowe remains evasive and currently faces criminal charges in New York for his role in the scheme.
Ng’s former boss, Tim Leissner, cooperated with prosecutors, paid a $43 million fine to avoid prison and testified at the trial about the self-proclaimed playboy’s excesses.
Law told the court he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to host celebrities including Paris Hilton, Megan Fox and Kim Kardashian at parties he held in New York.
Reisner said Leonardo DiCaprio was once paid $150,000 with funds embezzled from a sovereign wealth fund to fly to a Las Vegas party on a private jet.
Low was convicted in default by a Kuwaiti court in March last year of laundering $1 billion through the Gulf state.
A judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison for his role in the scheme.
