GEORGE TOWN: Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, has been urged to return to Malaysia to clear his name in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal, says a family acquaintance.
“It is not good for the state and country to be constantly associated with what the media has termed as the biggest financial scandal in recent memory,“ said Kebun Bunga assemblyman Jason Ong Khan Lee, who last met Jho Low and his family about a decade ago.
Jho Low and his family’s present whereabouts remain uncertain with claims that they could be hiding anywhere in the world, from the Caribbean to Europe to Taiwan, or Thailand, Hong Kong and China.
Jho Low’s father, Tan Sri Larry Low Hock Peng, is a prominent corporate leader who had previously served as the president of the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
Ong said the legal fraternity continues to uphold the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty, hence Jho Low should not be unduly worried and just return home.
“I understand that there is this suspicion that the judiciary may be tempted to cave in under political pressure but the Malaysian legal system is supposed to be reformed by now.”
There is this distinctive effort to separate the judiciary from the executive, said Ong, a senior PKR leader here.
Ong was responding to news reports that the police have seized the family mansion at Tanjung Bungah Park here over the weekend as part of the long standing investigations into claims of money laundering from the 1MDB strategic investment fund.
Jho Low has been wanted by police as a person of interest in investigations into the scandal.
His lawyers have issued a rebuke, claiming the family mansion was constructed one decade before the 1MDB scandal broke and that Jho Low was just a teenager then.
The lawyers also indicated that reports of the seizure is another attempt to gain political mileage and to continue with the trial by media.
To this, Ong said as long as Jho Low stays away, there would not be any closure to the allegations.
“People may forget as life goes on, but the case will prolong as monies were lost; big sums.”
It is human nature to seek a conclusive ending, said Ong.
A notice, directed at Jho Low’s mother Puan Sri Goh Gaik Ewe, was pasted on the front of the mansion.
It is believed that Goh’s name is listed as the owner of the property.
This document was a notice of seizure by the police under subsection 51(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
The seizure of the three-storey mansion also means that any dealings over the property are prohibited, as it is now under the jurisdiction of the government.
The mansion is the second major asset (which had previously belonged to Jho Low, or his family, or associates) to be seized by the Malaysian government since investigations formally began, in the wake of the 14th general election last year, into his alleged money laundering tied to the 1MDB fund.
Previously, the super yacht Equanimity, which was valued at US$250 million (RM1 billion), was confiscated last year and is set to be auctioned off to the highest bidder later this year.
Spokespersons for both the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have directed questions by the media to the Attorney-General’s Office.
