Liputan6.com, Jakarta Jho Low, the donor from The Wolf of Wall Street movie at the center of the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal, has reportedly been found and his new identity revealed.
Various rumors have been circulating about his whereabouts since then, but it has now come to light that Jho Low is using a new identity and hiding in China.
Project Brazen is a podcast studio and production company founded by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, former Wall Street Journal reporters who broke many of 1MDB's early bombshells and co-wrote Billion Dollar Whale about the scandal.
“Low lives in a mansion in Green Hills, an ultra-luxury neighborhood in Shanghai,” they said in a live broadcast titled Finding Jho Low, as reported by Variety on Friday (July 18).
Fake passport
They also added that Low used a “fake Australian passport” with the Greek name Constantinos Achilles Veis, which he used to “travel around China and hide his identity.”
Finally, in the livestream, they claim Low is now working as a “behind-the-scenes strategist for the Chinese government,” tasked with “helping sanctioned Chinese companies overcome difficulties around the world.”
Jho Low is the mastermind behind the embezzlement of at least US$4.5 billion from Malaysia's 1MDB development fund, most of which was used to purchase luxury real estate across the US, as well as artwork, private jets, and superyachts.
However, he also managed to use the funds to gain access to Hollywood circles, notably becoming close to Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor who went on to star in the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
Until 2016, the Department of Justice alleged that it had been financed using money from Malaysian corruption. DiCaprio had thanked Low in his 2014 Golden Globe Awards acceptance speech.
Since 2015, when elements of the corruption first came to light, Low is believed to have fled and was initially thought to be taking refuge in Taiwan, which has no extradition treaty with Malaysia or the US.