Jho Low has a radical new look, a home in Cyprus and an EU passport. Are the rumours true, or just ‘bear-faced’ lies?
- The fugitive financier, who turned 38 on Monday, ‘now resembles a bear’ and walks like a wild ox, according to authorities in the country harbouring him
- He also owns a Cypriot passport, according to reports, but his current whereabouts have not been disclosed
“Among the excuses they gave was that he supposedly underwent plastic surgery and now resembles a bear,” the police chief was quoted by Malaysian newspaper Berita Harian as saying. “His face is said to look like a bear. I don’t know but purportedly he has changed how his face looks.”
Low – who turned 38 on Monday – has also changed the way he walks, according to the authorities in the unnamed country, so that “there were times when he walked he resembled a wild ox”, Abdul Hamid said.
The inspector general was understandably unimpressed by these reasons for refusing to cooperate with Malaysian police, asking reporters if either of these explanations was “a logical excuse to be given by the authorities” of another country.
“This is a crime, [Low] stole a country’s money and he is accorded protection in another country,” Abdul Hamid said, according to Berita Harian.
However, a spokesperson for Low issued the following statement: “Malaysian Government officials continue to make politically motivated statements, ignoring both the facts at hand and the underlying legal principles. It remains the case that we understand Mr Low was offered asylum in August 2019 by a country that acts in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and European Convention on Human Rights, ratified by many countries around the world.”
On Sunday, Cyprus-based Greek-language daily Politis claimed that Low had obtained a passport from the Mediterranean island state in 2015 by buying an unfinished villa there worth €5 million (US$5.58 million).
Politis published a photograph of what it claimed to be Low’s Cypriot passport, which carried the date November 22, 2015 – around the time he fled Malaysia.
It said he had obtained the passport through international citizenship broker Henley & Partners – the same firm that secured his previous St Kitts & Nevis passport, according to whistle-blowing blog the Sarawak Report, which first broke the news about the 1MDB scandal in 2015.
Abdul Hamid, the police chief, said Malaysian authorities were aware of these developments and were investigating.
In September, he revealed that police had identified Low’s location and were in negotiations with the authorities in that country, which he did not name, to begin extradition proceedings.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Sim Tze Tzin also took a swipe, wishing Low happy birthday.
“Jho, it’s your birthday today. Happy birthday. Are you having party with Paris or Melinda tonight? Have fun … Looks like lawyer Bosskau blamed everything on you. Takkan you don’t clear your name? Come back lah … I treat you laksa Penang, surely you missed Penang food,” he said, referring to the wild parties that Low, a Penang native, reportedly had with celebrity heiress Paris Hilton and his attempts at wooing Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr.
The settlement, however, does not include an admission of guilt or wrongdoing, and is separate from the criminal proceedings that are pending against him.
On Monday, Cyprus’s President Nicos Anastasiades pledged to revoke any passports that were “mistakenly” granted to wealthy investors who were found to have committed wrongdoing.
He said “errors” may have been made in granting such “golden passports” to “perhaps 10-15” investors whom vetting had failed to identify as ineligible.
Passport revocations will happen once an ongoing investigation confirms that specific investors had breached eligibility rules, he added.
Additional reporting by Tashny Sukumaran, Associated Press
