Jho Low: Hunt for a Fugitive (Part 1) | Featured Documentary

[Music] he's one of the most wanted men on the planet a playboy a con man accused of masterminding the world's biggest heist a 4.5 billion dollar fraud stolen from malaysia's sovereign wealth fund 1mdb i think he should be punished severely on the run since 2016 al jazeera's secured never before heard recordings of the malaysian fugitive jolo trying to bargain his way out of going to jail definitely she's the one person that would have records of everything hello hello hi joe how are you i'm good how are you you must be a very busy man yes trying to help a busy man [Music] the disarmingly cheery voice is malaysia's infamous fugitive jolo to be honest i'm happy to talk to you via whatsapp i'm happy to do a video chat because for me it's very transparent so i mean if you all need to record or not it's fine totally i've no issues not seen nor heard for five years what you've been listening to is a recording of one of a series of phone calls between jolo and the malaysian government that took place from may to november 2018. the recordings exclusively obtained by al jazeera have been independently verified as far as i'm concerned i just want to do whatever it takes distinctive accent is a legacy of an education at london's elite boarding school harrow and then wharton business school in the united states born into a rich malaysian family their wealth was nothing compared to what his became [Applause] notorious for his decadent lifestyle famous and powerful friends extravagant gifts luxury real estate and accessories a super yacht an alley jet one of the first to question the source of his mega wealth was malaysian mp tony poi i mean you you want to put him in jail i think he should be punished severely but you cannot help by be being impressed it could be mixing or partying with the top hollywood stars and tomorrow he will be able to have wine with some of the top leaders around the world to be able to make all these deals deals happen but in 2016 the paparazzi photograph stopped [Music] i've gone from at least being able to meet people now i'm like on lockdown jolo went into hiding as investigators around the world closed in on a shocking global crime at the heart of it was malaysia's sovereign wealth fund 1mdb set up in 2009 by the country's then prime minister najib razak today's case is the largest single action ever brought by the department's kleptocracy asset recovery initiative one mdb was created with the ultimate goal of improving the well-being of the malaysian people but unfortunately a number of corrupt 1mdb officials treated this public trust as a personal bank account joelo is the centerpiece of this scandal there's no question i think that he in part was the mastermind he clearly was the facilitator [Music] michael hirschman co-founded transparency international the worldwide organization exposes government and corporate corruption jolo was a consummate networker a real internationalist someone who over the years got to know the stepson of prime minister najib and through him became familiar with the prime minister himself now everyone close to him knew that they would benefit by the abuse of power and the corruption the plot to defraud 1mdb began in early september 2009 on a mega yacht in the mediterranean on board jolo najib his wife rosmar and their children the hosts two co-founders of a newly established saudi arabian petroleum company one a saudi prince within weeks the sovereign wealth fund signed a 2.5 billion joint venture with the saudi company one mdb agreeing to invest one billion dollars almost all its funds at the time when you put one billion dollars in a single company for a sovereign fund that raises a lot of alarm bells by the end of september one mdb had paid its first installment of 700 million dollars but the money never made it to the joint venture instead it was diverted to a swiss bank account controlled by jolo it was just the start of the scam that would see 4.5 billion dollars stolen from the sovereign wealth fund our approach is to fundamentally question how quality is created jolo set up an international investment company jinwal capital in hong kong and touted his integrity and business acumen [Music] i do believe that this jolo felt that he was free to do anything he wanted and that he couldn't be touched because he had air cover coming from the prime minister's office and the prime minister's family [Music] najib's government threatened and silenced 1mdb whistleblowers and even tried to derail the u.s investigation it turned into a campaign of trying to get us to stop conducting the investigation newly retired fbi agent bill mcmurray led the u.s 1mdb case from july 2015. the evidence was very compelling and it's really the ultimate sin of a public public official to to take the money out of the hands of the people that you were elected to serve for your own good and then to do it on a scale that was done on this case is just sickening so sickening for the malaysian public that in may 2018 they voted out najib razak's corrupt government and his party that had ruled malaysia for more than 60 years police raids on najib's family homes seized hundreds of millions of dollars worth of handbags jewelry and cash the bottom line is as prime minister he profited handsomely from allowing jolo to mastermind this scam [Applause] former prime minister of malaysia has been convicted of money laundering in connection with the one mdb scandal in july 2020 najib was convicted of 1mdb related corruption sentenced to 12 years jail subject to appeal it's a fate jolo's been desperate to avoid only a day after the 2018 police raids on najib's homes he was on the phone from his hideout to the new malaysian government led by mahatya [Music] possible muhammad the market that i really believe that the change in government does present a real opportunity to resolve these 1mtb related issues and i am committed to achieve that in may 2018 although not yet facing criminal charges in the united states jolo was fighting off civil lawsuits aimed at seizing more than one billion dollars worth of assets from masterpieces to the 250 million dollar mega yacht equanimity all bought with 1mdb money on the phone he claimed that just before the malaysian election he'd been on the brink of a deal with the u.s government basically i agreed to give him all the assets and the us sells it and the monies will be used to directly repay 1mdb us dollar bonds okay [Applause] [Music] but they've been a major roadblock nadjie brzak's kleptocracy was still in [Music] [Applause] the malaysian power so they said we're not going to send back the money and that wasn't all najib's government feared incrimination if jolo agreed to give back assets if i signed the deal basically the malaysian government would would say okay so are you now saying that you know the monies are allegedly from one mtb when the position is not correct but my position i told them look you know in the us you can sign settlement agreements which have no ambition of wrongdoing would we love it an admission of guilt absolutely but it's not a must-have deborah la provot is a former veteran fbi agent she was part of the initial 1mdb investigation he may not accept responsibility or admit guilt but that doesn't mean that there isn't enough evidence out there already to prosecute him without an admission of guilt [Music] we made a strategic decision here that we would go forward with the civil action because it gave us an opportunity to lay out in great detail a lot of the evidence that we had of how the money was stolen where it went what it was used for i think we're very confident that we will be able to prove jolo's involvement and his position in this scheme singapore had already laid charges against jolo for his involvement in laundering 1mdb funds through its financial system but the fugitive claimed he'd almost sealed a deal with the city-state as well brokered by none other than najib's hand-picked attorney general the same man in 2016 cleared the then prime minister of any wrongdoing in relation to one mdb attorney general had numerous discoveries in singapore and they actually agreed to close off those charges in return i agreed to weigh my claims to all the assets and then they also agreed to basically lift the interpol right notice because they have singapore's also put around office office that's why i have travel restrictions but he says once again the deal fell through still determined to get his international arrest warrant lifted he now wanted the new maharia government to help i have given up a lot of the assets and there's still a portion they haven't given up so i think if singapore hears from malaysia they say low missile is going to wave all these claims i can do it within the next five days okay obviously in return then i need you know singapore to lift my interval red notice which they were willing to do and that you know in future they can't file any new notices on me but if they want to file new charges on me that's their business [Music] and making demands on singapore was just the start of what the fugitive wanted the new malaysian government to do for him i'm willing to waive all my rights to all the assets and then effectively say the malaysian government can take all of it and then in return basically you know i would need malaysia's undertaking that you know because of my cooperation uh that that you know this is settled and there will be no future proceedings against me and so on so forth and that wasn't all he wanted malaysia to then negotiate on his behalf around the world [Music] i think that was his best shot in getting out of jail but there is no chance at all that we will agree to drop all charges charges against him because he's he's pretty much like the most wanted man in malaysia i think he's delusional you know it's like the bank robber who gets caught and he's like well if i return the money then i don't want to be uh charged with robbing the bank well you still robbed the bank and in this case you robbed the development fund think of all the good that should have been done for all of those years that weren't done because of joe lowe he's someone who masterminded a 4.5 billion dollar fraud he knew what he was doing right he knew that brides were being paid he knew that he had friendly bankers in his pocket so i i think there is there's still the arrogance of i can buy my way out of this [Music] and that arrogance extended to a belief his help was indispensable to the u.s department of justice we're trying to be cooperative in terms of liquidating the assets as quickly as possible okay so typically what happens is we're trying to sell all the assets yeah it makes it easier for the doj and malaysia basically so you all don't have to deal with the asset level the us seized jolo's mega yacht equanimity in indonesian waters a few months earlier but as far as jolo was concerned he was still at its helm navigating its [Music] to try and sail it from indonesia to the mediterranean because we think it can get a much higher price than the us because as you know the summer season is easier to sell a boat so that i think when the time comes we may need your help to talk to the indonesians uh but that will of course you know be with the doj yes okay it's like he still thinks he's calling the shots right i'll get them the best bang for the buck but the us they don't need mr lowe's assistance to get the best price for the yacht again i think it's him inserting himself into the investigation you know this was all just some large misunderstanding and uh of course that's not the case today is charged with corruption with najib razak's stunning four from grace ever the opportunist jolo was ready to turn on the former prime minister ultimately i have no authority to make any decision he put the blame for the 1mdb scandal firmly on najib who crucially was not only prime minister but also malaysia's finance minister when billions of dollars were siphoned from the funds jolo is not alone on the run many other 1mdb accomplices also fled malaysia and are still wanted by the country's authorities to curry favor with the new mahathir administration jolo offered some of them as potential witnesses for future prosecutions of najib and his wife rosmar who'd also soon contest charges from money laundering to soliciting bribes of more than 45 million dollars to be honest i know most of the people that can be very helpful if the objective is you know let's look at black and white who's at home is the prime minister at fall is the first lady at fault then i think everyone can go back and prepare the documentation the u.s department of justice revealed that between 2011 and 2015 more than one billion dollars of 1mdb money flowed into the former prime minister's personal bank accounts and of that only 80 million dollars came from the saudi arabian government but najib claims it all did i i want to say this that the only reason why i accepted it because i had assurance you know from king abdullah that he would support me i do not have any knowledge beyond that please that is a fact not according to jolo he corroborates the us findings so i'll just give you the reality the reality is it is true that king abdullah actually agreed to give a donation to the pm but that was a small portion of a larger portion so i think what they're trying to do is take first section and paint it all over you know in general okay and jolo suggested a particular fellow fugitive could reveal what najib knew about the true origin of the money nick faisal had authority over najib's personal bank nick accounts point is he's happy to sign a statutory demonstration i'm going to make sure this that is consistent to the factual events and if that is agreed you know he'll sign it and then he just wants [Music] when it came to assets bought with one mdb funds jolo was determined that if he had to return his his co-conspirators must also return theirs i think the most challenging part is trying to identify the flows you know used to purchase all this jewelry in july 2013 najib's wife rosmar met jolo and a new york jeweler on another mega yacht in the mediterranean the u.s justice department asserts she was there to view a 22-carat pink diamond jolo paid 4 million dollars just to rent the yacht and a whopping 27 million dollars for the diamond for rosmar all from 1mdb money but incredibly the former prime minister maintains the jewel was a gift from sheikh mansour the brother of the crown prince of abu dhabi joe law presented this as a gift from shayman so okay there's a culture in the middle east that expensive presents are given [Music] when the police raided najib's home the pink diamond was nowhere to be found but some 12 000 other pieces of jewellery valued at more than 100 million dollars were according to jolo that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to jewelry purchase for rosmar on the 1mdb expense account i don't have like an accurate number because i think you know this thing happened over time yeah but i believe you know the number is north of half a billion dollars there's a huge number come again how much the number i think is to track down the more than half a billion dollars worth of jewels jolo urged the mahathir administration to seek out rosmah's trusted shopping guru natasha mapuri and he sent copies of her and her husband's singaporean passports to help find her this natasha lady is the central person that literally kept books on everything definitely like she's the one person that would have records dating back years and years off and i'm pretty sure she kept it as leverage and the fugitive even suggested mapuri may have committed a crime i mean you know i think it's pretty easy because she did you know make money off uh you know i think things like that so i'm sure there can be like you know charges against if you wanted to but i mean y'all can figure out what's the best way [Music] in early 2019 the malaysian police placed mapuri on a wanted list she's still at large and most of the 500 million dollars worth of jewelry remains unaccounted for [Music] i mean that's a lot of bling right you know a lot of my kleptocrats liked portable assets and you know they could be spread out in safes in different countries they could be going into private auction and liquidating those assets even if you're getting 50 cents on the dollar and it was a half a billion that's a quarter of a billion so it's it's not you know it's not chump change coming up jolo betrays one mdb's partners in the middle east and reveals how he's protected by the united arab emirates and china

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 1,006,665

Keywords: al jazeera live, al jazeera english, al jazeera, aljazeera, 1mdb, malaysia, Low Taek Jho, Jho Low, crime, fraud, world's biggest heist, Prime Minister Najib Razak, Najib Razak, Jho Low: Hunt for a Fugitive, jho low party, mahathir mohamad, jho low interview

Id: p4lj6lC4lrk

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020