KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — The Malaysian government has successfully recovered US$8.57 million (RM39.1 million) of assets linked to Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho and his family members, as part of its ongoing efforts to recover 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) assets.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today announced the successful recovery, which it said was carried out by the Malaysian government with the help of Singapore police’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
MACC said the RM39.1 million assets were recovered as a result of Low’s global civil forfeiture settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ), adding that these money will be repatriated or sent to Malaysia’s 1MDB Asset Recovery Trust Account.
“Other accounts belonging to Jho Low’s family members are also scheduled for repatriation in the near future,” MACC said in a brief statement today.
Following a recent 1MDB settlement where investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co agreed to pay RM1.4 billion to Malaysia, MACC said this latest recovery of RM39.1 million means that Malaysia has so far recovered a total of RM31.19 billion in the 1MDB case.
Last month, MACC’s 1MDB Asset Recovery Task Force head Datuk Mohamad Zamri Zainul Abidin told Malay Mail that Malaysia has so far successfully recovered around 70 per cent of 1MDB’s RM42 billion assets that were lost in the financial scandal.
Today, MACC noted that the US DoJ’s June 26, 2024 announcement of a global civil forfeiture settlement with Low has led to recovery of over US$100 million of assets.
“In total, US authorities have secured over US$ 1.5 billion linked to Jho Low, with a significant portion of these funds already returned to Malaysia,” it said.
MACC credited the successful 1MDB asset recovery to the Malaysian government’s ongoing efforts via the MACC-led Multi-Agency Task Force (MATF), with task force members including the Attorney General’s Chambers, Bank Negara Malaysia, the police and the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre.
“These efforts have been further strengthened by close cooperation with international authorities, particularly from the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, and France, under Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) arrangements,” it said.
It said the Malaysian government is committed to bring back all of 1MDB’s misappropriated funds and assets, and to ensure all individuals and institutions involved are held accountable.
