Jho Low

Jho Low

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In May 2026, it was reported that the fugitive was seeking a pardon from US president Donald Trump.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/13/1mdb-financier-jho-low-seeks-pardon-from-donald-trump

https://thediplomat.com/2026/05/1mdb-fugitive-jho-low-sought-pardon-from-us-president-trump-report-claims

Also in May 2026, it was reported that Malaysia had temporarily lifted the Interpol red notice against him.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/fugitive-malaysian-financier-jho-low-seeks-trump-pardon-wsj-reports-2026-05-12

General

born in 1981 in Penang, Malaysia.
Attended London’s Harrow School, where he befriended then-Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak’s stepson Riza Aziz.¹
In 2005, he graduated from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and expanded his network.²
In 2009, Najib Razak became Malaysia’s Prime Minister and Low connected him with the investment fund Mubadala Development. This drastically increased Low’s standing with Malaysian banks and made getting loans easier for him³. The same year, Low served as an advisor for the Malaysian state fund Terengganu Investment Authority, which was later renamed 1MDB⁴. Goldman Sachs provided financial advice through its participating managing director Tim Leissner⁵.
In 2011, he became an economic citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis⁶.
Low continued to increase his high-profile connections and focused on investment projects and funds. He was the designated president of the board of advisers for 1MDB and used this role to funnel more than 4 billion USD from the fund through shell companies for his personal gain⁷⁸. He never held a formal position at 1MDB but exercised significant control over the fund’s dealings⁹. He also worked as a finder and intermediary in relation to 1MDB officials and other government officials on a number of financial transactions and projects involving Goldman Sachs¹⁰.
In February 2012, Low provided Leissner and Roger Ng, an investment banker from Goldman Sachs, with a list of officials, close friends, associates, and wives of government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, who would have to be paid off to close the first deal, titled Project Magnolia¹¹. Low was fundamental in coordinating the deal, which saw 1MDB purchasing the Malaysian energy company Tanjong Energy Holdings. To meet Goldman Sachs’s requirements for bond issuances, 1MDB obtained a financial guarantee from the Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Fund, which was owned and controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi.
In May 2012, Project Magnolia was closed, raising 1.25 billion USD for 1 MDB and earning Goldman Sachs roughly 193 million USD. In the following three months, millions of dollars of bond proceeds were transferred through shell companies beneficially owned and controlled by Low and other participants in the scheme to pay for bribes and other favors, while also keeping a portion for their personal use.
In October 2012, another bond transaction, called Project Maximus, was closed and raised 1.75 billion USD for 1MDB to purchase another Malaysian power generation company. It followed the same pattern as Project Magnolia and earned Goldman Sachs an estimated 188 million USD. Again, some of the proceedings were transferred by Low and others to various individuals in exchange for obtaining and retaining business for Goldman Sachs.
In November 2012, Project Catalyze started. Its aim was to raise another 3 billion USD through a bond issuance to fund 1MDB’s portion of a joint venture with the Middle Eastern Investment Firm, a subsidiary of the Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Fund. It was closed in March 2013.
Out of the 6.5 billion USD raised by these three bond transactions, more than 2.7 billion were misappropriated and distributed by Low and Leissner as bribes and kickbacks to involved government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi as well as to other participants in the scheme and their families.
During and after the 1MDB Bond Deals, Goldman Sachs continued to do business involving Low, often with him in an advisor role. Examples are the restructuring of an investment by the Middle Eastern Investment Firm in a Malaysian bank and Low’s acquisition of an oil company through a joint venture with a subsidiary of the Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Fund. Both transactions also involved two officials from Abu Dhabi who had received bribes in connection with the bond deals¹².
In 2013, the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”, which was partially financed by Low and starred his friend Leonardo DiCaprio, was released¹³¹⁴.
In 2015, he received a Cyprian passport under the country’s “golden passport” scheme¹⁵. Low fled Malaysia in May, two months after the Malaysian Prime Minister had ordered auditors to verify 1MDB’s accounts¹⁶¹⁷.
In 2016, Interpol issued a red notice on him after request from Singapore¹⁸.
In 2018, the Malaysian government issued arrest warrants against him and the administration of Saint Kitts and Nevis deactivated his passport via Interpol¹⁹. Additionally, the US Department of Justice indicted him and two other collaborators in connection with the 1MDB findings²⁰.
In 2019, Cyprus started the process of stripping him of his citizenship. It concluded in 2024, after Low’s appeal was rejected by an independent commission²¹. In October 2019, the US Department of Justice recouped nearly 1 billion USD which were taken from 1MDB via an agreement with Low. The agreement does not include admission of wrongdoing and does not release him from other criminal charges relating to the 1MDB case²².
In 2021, he was charged by the US Department of Justice with orchestrating an unregistered, back-channel campaign in 2017 to have US officials drop the investigation into Low and 1MDB, as well as to send a Chinese dissident back to China²³.

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