This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 4, 2019 - November 10, 2019

MALAYSIA’s pursuit of fugitive Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, to bring him home to face criminal charges will not be affected by the settlement he reached with the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Attorney-General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas said.

Speaking to The Edge by phone from overseas last Friday, Thomas also noted that the settlement covered only the 30 asset forfeiture actions the DoJ had taken against Jho Low.

“Other criminal charges for money laundering and corrupt practices filed against Jho Low by the DoJ are not part of the settlement,” he said.  “As far as Malaysia is concerned, all our charges against him will continue, and he should return home to face them instead of hiding and making all sorts of claims that he will not get a fair trial.”

He said everyone can see that the two ongoing trials of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak are being carried out in a fair and transparent manner before an independent judiciary. “Jho Low will be guaranteed that,” he added.

He also said Malaysia looks forward to the return of the US$700 million that will be seized by the DoJ, which has said the money was stolen from 1MDB and will be returned to the people of Malaysia.

Police filed criminal charges against Jho Low and his father, Tan Sri Larry Low Hock Peng, in August 2018 for offences under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 (AMLATFA) over money allegedly stolen from 1MDB.  In that case, Jho Low was slapped with eight counts of money laundering.

In the first, second and third charges, he is alleged to have received US$261,449,960 from unlawful activities via his BSI Bank Ltd account.  In the fourth to eighth charges, he is alleged to have transferred US$41,100,073.22 and US$140,636,225.10 to the account of World View Ltd with Caledonian Bank Ltd in Cayman Islands.

Jho Low is also facing charges brought by the DoJ over funds misappropriated from 1MDB and bribes paid to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials.

Then, he was slapped with a further five charges under Section 4(1)(a) of AMLATFA for receiving US$1.03 billion from 1MDB through his company, Good Star Ltd.

He was also jointly charged with Eric Tan Kim Loong, 40, under the same Act, with two offences involving US$1.26 million.

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