PETALING JAYA: Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (pix), also known as Jho Low, has welcomed the US authorities’ latest deal to recover assets linked to money embezzled from 1Malaysia Developmemt Berhad (1MDB), following a court filing on the return of jewellery worth US$1.7 million (RM7 million).
However, he reiterated that the surrender of jewellery for his mother Evelyn Goh, does not amount to an admission of wrongdoing.
According to the US Department of Justice, the jewellery items were purportedly acquired using misappropriated 1MDB funds.
“Mr Low is pleased to learn that the US Department of Justice and all the relevant parties are working to amicably resolve these matters, and that the DoJ has acknowledged that ‘the transfer ... shall not be construed as an admission of wrongdoing or liability on the part of the current custodian or any other party’,” he said via statement issued through his agent.
“We look forward to the continuing resolution of these issues,” the statement further read.
A local news portal quoted a court filing by DoJ as saying that it has reached an agreement with an unnamed custodian of the jewellery – a pair of diamond earrings and a matching diamond ring.
“Once the government is in possession, custody, or control of the defendant’s assets pursuant to Supplemental Rule G of the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty or Maritime Claims and Asset Forfeiture Actions, the government will move forward towards default of the defendant’s assets,” the portal quoted from court documents filed on May 1.
It was previously reported that Low’s mother Evelyn Goh was given the jewellery.
DoJ, which has identified Low as the person who embezzled billions of dollars from 1MDB, said he had used the money to buy diamonds worth US$1.7 million from the jeweller Lorraine Schwartz Inc.
