KUALA LUMPUR (July 22) : 1Malaysia Development Bhd has applied to the High Court to initiate contempt proceedings against fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and his father Tan Sri Larry Low Hock Peng for not complying with a Mareva injunction.
1MDB — along with and its subsidiary 1MDB Global Global Investments Ltd or 1MDBGIL (now known as Global Diversified Investment Company Ltd) — had filed the application in May, according to court documents sighted by theedgemarkets.com.
The application, filed by Messrs Skrine Skrine, is fixed for hearing on Aug 12 before Justice Hayatul Akmal.
The Mareva injunction against 1MDB and 1MDBGIL was granted by Justice Hayatul during an ex parte hearing on March 15. It requires the assets of Jho Low and his father, totalling up to US$1.432 billion, to be frozen, and for both of them to list these assets and also give their current address to the Messrs Skrine.
The injunction was upheld by Justice Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz during an inter partes hearing on May 15, after considering submissions from 1MDB and 1MDBGIL, as well as from Jho Low and Hock Peng, who were then represented by Messrs Valen & Oh, which was appointed by US law firm Kobre and Kim LLP on behalf of the two men.
However, Messrs Valen & Oh had applied to discharge itself after it did not manage to get further instructions and while initially Justice Hayatul Akmal did not allow them to stop representing the 41-year-old Jho Low and Hock Peng, she allowed their application last July 6.
The US$1.432 billion worth of funds or assets sought in the Mareva injunction is part of the US$3.78 billion that 1MDB is seeking from Jho Low and his father, as well as Jho Low's mother Puan Sri Goh Gaik Ewe, his brother Taek Szen, his sister May Lin, and his right hand man Eric Tan Kim Loong, who were named as defendants in the suit that was filed in May last year.
Besides seeking the return of the funds, 1MDB and its subsidiaries are also seeking damages to be assessed by the court.
Jho Low was also in the news earlier this month after Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun disclosed that his office has rejected a proposed settlement offered by Jho Low through Kobre and Kim in several meetings arranged by former attorney-general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.
The Edge reported that Jho Low purportedly offered to settle his case by repatriating RM1.5 billion of 1MDB funds to Malaysia, in order for the red-notice issued on him by Interpol to be lifted.
Malaysia had charged Jho Low in absentia in 2018, with eight money-laundering charges under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act, 2001 (Act 613). Three of the charges were for receiving 1MDB funds, while five were for transferring 1MDB funds.
Jho Low was later additionally charged with five more counts of money laundering involving transfers totalling US$1.03 billion into a Swiss Bank account between Sept 30, 2009 and October 25, 2011, and two other money laundering charges for receiving US$126 million in a Singapore-based bank account.
In 2020, the MACC brought another charge against Jho Low and his associates, this time allegedly engaging in a criminal conspiracy to enable Najib to use his position to receive a bribe totalling RM60.63 million.
In the United States, Jho Low has been charged in New York for conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB and for conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to various Malaysians and officials from the United Arab Emirates. He was also separately charged in the District of Columbia for conspiring to make and conceal foreign and conduit campaign contributions during the US presidential election in 2012.
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