What to know about Jho Low, the Malaysian fugitive seeking Trump’s pardon in 1MDB case
Malaysia has recovered RM31.3 billion linked to the scandal
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[KUALA LUMPUR] US prosecutors call him the mastermind of one of the largest frauds in history. He’s avoided arrest since disappearing from public view in 2015. Now, from wherever he’s hiding, the fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low is seeking a pardon from US President Donald Trump.
The US charged Low in 2018 with devising the scheme to syphon US$4.5 billion from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. The US said that Low took at least US$1.4 billion for himself and used a chunk of the cash to fund a lavish lifestyle. He hobnobbed with Hollywood celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, bought luxury real estate in Los Angeles, New York and London, and once lost US$26 million while gambling in Las Vegas, according to testimony at a 2022 trial in the US.
Even if Trump approved the pardon application submitted to the Justice Department this year, Low would remain at risk of prosecution in Malaysia and Singapore, which both charged him in absentia. Low has previously denied wrongdoing.
Here’s what to know about Low and the scandal that captivated the financial world and toppled a government.
What is the 1MDB scandal?
1MDB was a Malaysian government investment company that took shape in 2009 under then-Prime Minister Najib Razak to drive economic development in the country. Early projects included buying privately owned power plants and planning a new financial district in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
To fund the projects, 1MDB accumulated more than US$10 billion of debt, partly with the help of US investment bank Goldman Sachs.
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Questions about the fund intensified in 2015 after it missed debt payments and reports showed that about US$700 million of its money had moved through government-linked entities into bank accounts bearing Najib’s name.
US prosecutors later alleged that 1MDB was the front for an international money laundering and misappropriation scheme that stretched from 2009 to 2015. At the heart of it, they said, was a small coterie of Malaysians led by Low, who were aided by two men then working as Goldman Sachs bankers.
Of the US$6.5 billion that Goldman raised for the bond transactions, Low and others diverted at least US$2.7 billion from 1MDB into personal accounts disguised to look like legitimate businesses, according to testimony at the 2022 trial in New York of a former Goldman banker. Low pocketed US$1.42 billion, according to the US, while Najib took US$756 million.
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Goldman Sachs enjoyed a lucrative relationship with 1MDB and did the bidding for fund officials even as some of the bank’s employees questioned Low’s involvement, the prosecutors said.
According to US investigators, funds were laundered through accounts at banks in several countries. Low, with the help of the two Goldman Sachs bankers, paid about US$2 billion in bribes to government officials, including Najib. Some of the stolen funds were spent on luxury apartments, diamond jewellery, Picasso paintings, and a superyacht; US$60 million was used to finance the film The Wolf of Wall Street.
What was the fallout?
The scandal shook Malaysia and played a big role in Najib’s stunning electoral loss in 2018, which ended his party’s six-decade rule of the country. Najib was charged with corruption, breach of trust and money laundering. He was found guilty and went to prison in 2022 on a sentence that was later reduced to six years. In 2025, he was convicted of a new set of charges and ordered to spend an additional 15 years in prison and to pay an RM11.4 billion (S$3.7 billion) fine.
Goldman admitted that its officials had helped to spread US$1.6 billion in illicit payments across Malaysia and the Middle East and that some of its executives participated in bribery or were aware of it. In 2020, the bank paid more than US$5 billion to regulators in the US, the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore to resolve probes into bond deals related to 1MDB. The guilty plea was entered by a Malaysian unit of Goldman.
Tim Leissner, a former Goldman banker who served as its chairman for South-east Asia, pleaded guilty in the US to helping loot the Malaysian investment fund. He received a two-year prison term, which he began serving in February. His former colleague Roger Ng was convicted in New York in 2022, sentenced to 10 years in prison, and sent back to Malaysia in 2023 to assist local authorities with their 1MDB investigation.
Malaysia has recovered RM31.3 billion linked to the scandal, or about 75 per cent of the money misappropriated from the fund, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said in May. The haul includes proceeds from the sale of a superyacht seized from Low, as well as global settlements with Goldman and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment.
How was Jho Low involved?
Low, whose real name is Low Taek Jho, never held a formal position at 1MDB and has said that he did consulting work for the fund. US prosecutors have portrayed him as the chief architect of the fraud. They say that his close relationships with high-ranking government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi were central to the scheme, and that he set up shell companies to collect proceeds from the fund and arranged withdrawals for payoffs and to fund his lavish lifestyle.
In a single 90-minute stint playing baccarat at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Low lost US$1.75 million. To celebrate his 28th birthday, he threw a party at Caesars Palace; Leonardo DiCaprio was flown in on a private jet and received US$150,000 to attend the party and a dinner.
Prosecutors say Grammy-winning rapper Pras Michel took US$100 million from Low for plots that included a lobbying campaign to end the US probe of IMDB. Michel was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his involvement.
Low was charged in absentia by Malaysia, the US and Singapore with money laundering and other crimes related to the 1MDB fraud.
In 2020, Low agreed to hand over to the US Justice Department nearly US$1 billion of assets, including a luxury boutique hotel in Beverly Hills. The deal did not include an admission of guilt or release him from criminal charges.
Tom Wright, a journalist who co-authored the book Billion Dollar Whale about the 1MDB scandal, alleged last year that Low could be in an upscale Shanghai neighbourhood, living under an alias and travelling on a forged Australian passport.
What does the fraud have to do with the US?
The US government brought charges against Low and the two former Goldman Sachs bankers, alleging that they conspired to launder the billions of US dollars they looted from 1MDB. The two bankers were accused of conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws by paying bribes. Goldman Sachs, which played a central role, is headquartered in New York.
What’s the process for seeking a presidential pardon in the US?
When someone files a request for a pardon with the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, as Low did, it goes through a thorough review, including an FBI background check. After that, a recommendation goes to the attorney general, the White House Counsel’s Office and then to the president, who may grant or deny the request.
The Justice Department process for leniency is used by thousands of people every year. However, Trump has often sidestepped that system, spurring a supercharged pardon economy in which some lawyers quote as much as US$1 million to put cases together and get them in front of the White House for consideration.
Is Trump likely to pardon Jho Low?
It’s unclear if Low will receive a pardon. Leissner also requested a pardon last year and still had to report to prison to begin serving his sentence in February.
Leissner told jurors that Low assured him that Trump, during his first term, was involved in talks to end the US criminal probe of the 1MDB fraud. Leissner also testified that Low told him he’d discussed the matter with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser at the time, and had support for a deal in which Low and Leissner would avoid criminal charges over their dealings with 1MDB.
A source familiar with Kushner’s schedule said that Kushner never met with Low or spoke to him during his time at the White House, Bloomberg News reported in 2022. BLOOMBERG
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