Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low will give up more than $100 million including a luxury Paris apartment and works by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol to settle civil forfeiture cases over his role in the 1MDB bribery and embezzlement scandal.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the forfeiture on Wednesday after U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles approved a plea agreement with Low and his family on Monday.
The confiscated assets include almost $1 billion, including a $120 million “superyacht” that Low and his family previously lost.
Low still faces money laundering and bribery conspiracy charges in Brooklyn, New York, in connection with 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund also known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
U.S. and Malaysian authorities said more than $4.5 billion was looted from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015, with some of the money transferred to overseas bank accounts and shell companies linked to Low.
The financier helped former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set up 1MDB to promote economic development.
Goldman Sachs, which helped 1MDB sell the bonds, reached a $2.9 billion settlement in 2020 in a U.S. criminal case involving 1MDB. The bank is not part of civil forfeiture.
Low’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Justice Department said Low paid about $35 million for Monet’s “Vetheuil au Soleil,” Warhol’s “Campbell’s Colored Soup Can (Emerald Green), 1965” and a Paris apartment.
Low and his family will also give up properties and bank accounts worth $67 million in Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland.
The Justice Department said it helped return more than $1.5 billion related to 1MDB to Malaysia in the department’s largest-ever civil forfeiture case.
