Jho Low: the Crazy Rich Asian Gatsby

As reported by sarawakreport.org, a double 2013 new year’s countdown parties—in Sydney and Los Angeles—with Leonardo DiCaprio and other famous Hollywood stars as the partygoers were made possible by Malaysia #1 corruptor, Low Taek Jho.Tom Wright and Bradley Hope call him as a Billion Dollar Whale, the Man who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World.

Jakarta, 3-4 November 2018, six years ago and a thousand miles from here, Jho Low celebrated his 31st birthday at the Palazzo, Los Angeles. If you have read the Great Gatsby book or watch Leo’s version of based-on-novel movie, you’ll easily get the image of the opulence and luxury. Yap, Jho Low’s party is that hedonist.

Tom and Bradley mentioned that guzzling champagne, the guests, an eclectic mix of celebrities and hangers-on, buzzed around Low, as more people arrived. The guest list included Swiss Beats (the husband of Alicia Keys), Leonardo diCaprio—rumor has it that Jho Low was the money behind ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, Martin Scorsese (the director of such movie), Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Robert De Niro, Tobey Maguire, Jonah Hill, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Bradley Cooper, Psy, and many other stars. Also joining the crowd, Tim Leissner, a German-born banker who was a star dealmaker for Goldman Sachs in Asia and Mohamed Al Husseiny, the CEO of one of Abu Dhabi’s richest investment funds.

As for the gift, he got a ribbon-wrapped $2.5 million Bugatti Veyron from his brother and the low-end present was a custom wine box covered in an image of Kung Fu Panda with $1,000 1981 petrus wine, made the year of Low’s birth, Tom and Bradley added.

Talking about panda, it was what Low’s closest friends called him—a nod to his plump frame and cuddly demeanor. Bradley and Tom portrayed him as rounded face, boyish, with glasses, red cheeks, and barely a hint of facial hair. Such an unassuming appearances. But look more closely, and Low was not so much timid as quietly calculating, as if computing every human interaction, sizing up what he could provide for someone and what they, in turn, could do for him. He undoubtedly has figured out how the world really works.

A stark contrast nickname was given by his casino operator and nightclubs fellow who refer him as a ‘whale’. In the book, it is mentioned that he was the most extravagant whale that Vegas, New York, and St. Tropez had seen in a long time—maybe ever. But in any party he threw, the Whale did no flirting nor dancing. He preferred sitting while observing and making sure that all guests are thrilled and satisfied.

Las Vegas Sun columnist Robbin Leach was invited, by design, to write about the party, but not the name of the host. The Whale definitely wants his billion spending in secret. Mysterious is an adjective that perfectly suits Jho Low. Information about him is hardly found in internet, especially about the source of his endless cash. But it seems like his guests do not give any hoot about it.

Later on, the part one ‘Invention of Jho Low’ explained about the Lows, a Chinese migrant family making money by buying a small stock in a garment company, WME. The Lows was lucky enough that in the 1990s, the stock price of WME increased and made them millionaires many times over. In this part, we will also notice that a proverb saying ‘like father like son,’ is somehow true. Low’s hedonist side is inherited from his father, Larry. Also, Low’s friendship with 0.1 percent richest and royal families was not by incident. It is rather pre-planned by Larry by moving his whole family to Kensington Green apartment, where most powerful Malaysian politicians live, such as Najib Razak—later became a Malaysian Prime Minister as well as Low’s protector. Larry also made an investment in Low by taking him into Harrow high school and Wharton College. There, Low made up a story about his family’s wealth, saying that he was a “Malaysian prince” and his ancestors had business in mining, liquor trading, and property.

Low never failed his father. He brilliantly uses his royal friends to expand his connection. He made his Arab fellow introduce him to richest family and influential firms in Middle East. And when he took a semester off, Low went to Kuwait, where he had a meeting with business people and minor royals, made possible by his Kuwaiti friend in Harrow. Besides, Low managed to get specific information about the power structure in the UAE from Otaiba who later opened doors for Low in Abu Dhabi.

A meeting with Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, an ambitious Emirati running an investment fund business called Mubadala Development inspired him to look closer at Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional. Soon in his final semester in college, he set up his first British Virgin Island-based company, the Wynton Group—derived from the word ‘win tons’ (of million). And just after the end of his senior year, Low returned to Malaysia, did business with the help of his Harrow and Wharton connection, and built a powerful backup troop, the family of Najib Razak.

In chapter four, we are told that Low showed up in front of Najib just at the right time. It is when he is seeking fame for Prime Minister Election. Low made Najib have investment-attractor-figure-like image by letting him take a credit for Low’s success in attracting Middle East investment in one of Khazanah’s project, without the need to do any legwork for it. From doing this, Low did not make any penny. But he got more names for his contact list, an impression in his Middle East fellow that he has such a close relation with number one people in Malaysia, and Najib’s first dependency on him.

Long story short, through a series of project, Low had built a quick reputation in Malaysia as a deal maker and was ready to expand its source of cash by persuading Malaysian prince to set up a sovereign wealth fund with Goldman managing director Tim Leissner as an advisor. Whereas, the prince saw that the fund didn’t have a full management team in place and ordered it be shuttered. But lucky enough for Jho Low that his long cultivation on Najib’s family was paying off. Najib was elected as the sixth Prime Minister of the Malaysia, which also means that he would need huge amount of money to restore his party’s popularity. So, he cashed in and successfully persuaded Najib take over the sovereign wealth fund previously shut by the prince. He transformed it into a federal entity under the name of 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB.

Tom and Bradley said that the 1MDB fund was supposed to invest in green energy and tourism to create high quality jobs for all Malaysians, whether of Malay, Indian, or Chinese heritage, hence the slogan ‘1Malaysia’. In fact, the money coming from this entity was also used by Najib for rebuilding its party’s popularity, which on the surface was packaged as ‘corporate social responsibility’ spending.

The first investment or ‘heist,’ as Tom and Bradley put it, came from Saudi Arabian Prince Turki Bin Abdullah. After an official-facade meeting in an Alfa Nero that cruised off the Monaco coast between the Prince and Najib, of course arranged by Jho Low, Prince Turki put its $2.5 billion oil assets in a joint venture with $1 billion 1MDB’s money. On the surface, the idea was to use the money for oil exploration.

With the success of the deal, it’s time to make a team. The chairman position is definitely occupied by Najib Razak with an exceptional power to assign board member and veto decisions. He is supported by Sharol Halmi as the chief executive, Casey Tang as the executive director, and Jasmine Loo as the legal counsel.

Not mentioned on the list but having a privilege to control the fund is Jho Low. He himself decided not to take no official role, but in fact, he was behind every decision.

It is in the Chapter 9 ‘I feel the earth move’ that Tom and Bradley detailed how Low took hundreds millions of dollar from the joint venture. Under Low’s command, Casey Tang contacted Deutsche Bank in Malaysia to transfer $1 billion of the country with $700 million of which be put into an unnamed account with RBS Coutts in Zurich. The transfer request was oddly delivered by hand. Tang explained that the account was owned by PetroSaudi and the transfer was to repay loan. Despite the suspicious answer, Deutsche transferred $300 million to the joint venture’s new account at J.P. Morgan and $700 to mysterious account at Coutts in Zurich. Later on, it was mentioned that the account was under the name of Good Star Ltd, a Seychelles company. It was 100% owned by PetroSaudi. In truth, Good Star was a bearer-share company and its single share was held by Jho Low. How? Only months before, he had set up a shell company using the services of a trust company. From this account, Low distributed money among the group just to make all people involved happy and/or not suspicious.

In getting what he wants, Low’s attempt is not without any failure. But I don’t make much elaboration of it and leave some parts of this book untold so that you can find it out yourself in case someday you feel like reading it.

Notwithstanding Low’s wrongdoing, one thing I can learn from his story: connection means a lot in a modern world. And the easy ways to be connected, in addition to finding common interest, are power and prestige—or at least the appearance of it.

And to conclude the whole chapters of the book, though not wholly told in this summary, I will cite one famous musician’s lyric, which Tom and Bradley put as the opening of the book:

Steal a little and they throw you in jail

Steal a lot and they make you king.

—Bob Dylan, “Sweetheart Like You”