Billion Dollar Whale_ The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

At the Wharton School, Low befriended some of the
richest students, many from important Middle

Eastern families, who would prove useful to him
later in life. With his father’s money, he also began
to host extravagant parties. In November 2001, Low,
then a sophomore, threw a party at Shampoo, one of
Philadelphia’s top nightclubs, earning the nickname

“Asian Great Gatsby.”

As a student in London, Low got to know Riza Aziz, the stepson of Malaysian Deputy Prime
Minister Najib Razak. Hailing from Malaysia’s foremost political dynasty, Najib and his second
wife, Rosmah Mansor (Riza’s mother), were extremely powerful. After graduating from Wharton,

Low deepened his ties to Najib and Rosmah, using his connections to bring Middle Eastern
investment to Malaysia. Getty Images

Rosmah Mansor was born to a middle-class family but grew up on the grounds of a royal palace and

had the taste to match. Low knew that his way to power in Malaysia ran through Rosmah, and he set
about procuring jewels and other luxuries for her. Getty Images

In 2009 Najib became Malaysia’s prime minister. Low soon persuaded him to set up a sovereign
wealth fund, known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Najib saw 1MDB as the way to modernize

Malaysia, and to further bolster the country’s image with allies such as President Barack Obama.
Getty Images

Although Low took no formal
role at the 1MDB fund, he

made all the major decisions,
working through proxies. His
most trusted allies included

Casey Tang Keng Chee,
1MBD’s executive director,
and legal counsel Jasmine Loo

Ai Swan. In the wake of
allegations of fraud at the fund,
Tang and Loo went on the run.

Bank Negara Malaysia

In October 2009, 1MDB invested $1 billion in a joint venture with PetroSaudi International, which
was co-owned by Prince Turki Bin Abdullah Al Saud, a son of Saudi Arabia’s king. The idea was to

invest in oil exploration, but hundreds of millions of 1MDB’s money instead moved to a shell
company in the Seychelles controlled by Low, who made sure to pay off his co-conspirators. Getty

Images

Patrick Mahony, a former Goldman banker who was
PetroSaudi’s director of investment, helped Low

structure the deal with 1MDB. Fluent in French and
English, Mahony had attended international school

in Geneva, and was considered brash by many
business associates.





Xavier Justo was tasked to run PetroSaudi’s London office, but he left in April 2011 after falling out
with the firm’s founders over pay. After he resigned, Justo arranged to get ahold of a copy of

PetroSaudi’s email servers, 140 gigabytes of information, including emails between Low, Mahony,
and others that painted a picture of what had transpired at the company. It was a fateful decision that

later landed Justo in a Thai jail and had his new wife, Laura, battling for his release. Xavier Justo



Low came to rely on powerful friends such as Yousef Al Otaiba, a young adviser to the crown prince
of the United Arab Emirates. Otaiba introduced Low to executives from Mubadala, a sovereign
wealth fund, which invested in Malaysia and did deals with Low. In return, Low made sure that
Otaiba received millions of dollars. Getty Images





Khadem Al Qubaisi, the managing director of the International Petroleum Investment Company, or
IPIC, became a close ally of Low. Known for his love of luxury cars, Al Qubaisi agreed for IPIC to

guarantee $3.5 billion in bonds that the 1MDB fund was issuing via Goldman Sachs to fund the
purchase of power plants. But the guarantee was just a ruse for Low and Al Qubaisi to funnel billions

more out of 1MDB. Getty Images





Al Qubaisi’s patron in the gulf was Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who hailed from the
UAE’s ruling family and was one of the world’s richest people. Better known for his ownership of
Manchester City Football Club, Sheikh Mansour gave Al Qubaisi cover to run IPIC and to feather his
own nest. In return, Al Qubaisi ensured the sheikh had ample funds to pay for staff, houses, cars, and

boats around the world. Getty Images

Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner got to know Jho Low in 2009. In 2012 and 2013 Goldman

netted nearly $600 million by selling three bonds for the 1MDB fund, and Leissner, paid millions in
bonuses, later married model Kimora Lee Simmons. Getty Images

As far back as college, Low had been a big gambler. But after his first big haul in late 2009, he
became the largest “whale” any casino manager had encountered, often spending days at the tables in

Las Vegas. He thought nothing of losing millions of dollars in a hand, stunning onlookers. On one
occasion, he dropped $50,000 in chips on the floor, only recovering them when a friend pointed it

out.

Tired of leasing planes, Low spent $35 million of the money he took from 1MDB to purchase a
Bombardier Global 5000 private jet. He lived on the jet, which was outfitted with a bed and mini-
office, more than the many homes he acquired. In a typical three-week period, Low would crisscross
the globe, from Malaysia to Abu Dhabi, Zurich, London, New York, and Vegas, before starting over

again.

Most of Low’s partying, in casinos and nightclubs, took place behind closed doors. But as he accrued
wealth and status, he made an effort to ingratiate himself with New York society. In October 2014,
he was honored at a charity gala on Wall Street, congratulated here by model Gigi Hadid. Getty
Images

One night, after recording a track at Jungle Studios in Manhattan, Low relaxed with Swizz Beatz, a
friend and hip-hop producer. Low recently had acquired his stake in the music label EMI, and when
one of the label’s artists, Busta Rhymes, walked into the studio, Low called out to Busta, “I own you.

You’re my bitch!”

In early 2013, with elections approaching in Malaysia, Low
drove Busta Rhymes around his home state of Penang, where
the rapper performed a concert financed by Low. Ooi Keng Eng

At Wharton, Low had fantasized about Paris Hilton, the reality star and model, and by 2010 he had
befriended her. Gossip columns speculated this mysterious Asian was Hilton’s new boyfriend. In

fact, he paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars in appearance fees to attend his events.
GoffPhotos.com

With 1MDB money, Low financed Red Granite
Pictures, a production company founded by Riza
Aziz (right), the stepson of Prime Minister Najib,
and Joey McFarland (left), a former talent booker.

Almost overnight McFarland became a top
Hollywood producer. Even Swizz Beatz (center) got
his first acting role, a bit part in Red Granite’s Dumb

and Dumber To.

Red Granite’s coup was buying the rights to The Wolf of Wall Street, which released in December

2012. Low spent three years courting its star, Leonardo DiCaprio, inviting him to parties and
presenting him with lavish gifts. For DiCaprio, Red Granite offered independence from the big

studios. Getty Images





Low had a girlfriend back in Malaysia, but he also wooed Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr. Low
met Kerr at a Korean restaurant in New York in early 2014. The Malaysian lavished her with

millions of dollars in jewelry and they vacationed together on Low’s yacht in the Mediterranean.
Getty Images

Low bought this townhouse in London’s exclusive Belgravia neighborhood, then transferred
ownership to Riza Aziz. The home, costing 17 million pounds, served as a pied-à-terre for Prime

Minister Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, on their many trips to London. Tom Wright

In June 2011, Low paid $30.5 million for a penthouse in New York’s Time Warner Center. The
4,825-square-foot unit, with three bedrooms, a library, and a hanging fish tank, offered panoramic

views of Central Park. Low made the apartment his base in New York. Getty Images

In 2013 Low began to collect art. To celebrate Najib’s election victory, Low bought Dustheads, a
1982 masterpiece by Jean-Michel Basquiat. He paid $48.8 million for the work, a record for the
artist, in a heated bidding war at Christie’s in New York. In all he amassed art worth more than $300

million, including priceless works by Monet and van Gogh. Getty Images

In spring 2014, Low took delivery of the Equanimity, a $250 million yacht that could accommodate
twenty-six guests. With its Asian-inspired interior constructed out of wood, bamboo, marble, and

gold leaf, the boat helped Low stand out from the merely wealthy. As his scheme began to implode,
Low used the yacht as a bolt hole. Associated Press

Ho Kay Tat, publisher of the
Edge, a Malaysian weekly,
drove the early coverage of the
1MDB scandal. In 2015, the
Edge, along with the Sarawak

Report, got ahold of
PetroSaudi documents from
Xavier Justo and published a
series of damning stories.

Prime Minister Najib
suspended the Edge’s
publication license and had Ho
detained for a night in July
2015. Here Ho greets
journalists after his release.
The Malaysian Insider

In June 2015, Thai police arrested Xavier Justo on charges of attempting to blackmail PetroSaudi.
One of his first visitors in a Bangkok jail was a former British policeman called Paul Finnigan, who
was working with PetroSaudi. Finnigan promised to get Justo out by December if he pleaded guilty,

according to a later criminal complaint. Justo did as he was told, but in August a Thai judge
sentenced him to three years in prison. Royal Thai Police

Prime Minister Najib’s kleptocratic regime sparked protests from ordinary Malaysians. A group
known as Bersih, the Malay word for “clean,” organized large demonstrations in 2015 and 2016
calling for Najib to step down over the 1MDB scandal. Here, protesters hold up caricatures (from left

to right) of Riza Aziz, Rosmah Mansor, Najib, and Low. Getty Images

In July 2016, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the Justice Department was moving
forward with a civil lawsuit, seeking to seize $1 billion in assets bought with money stolen from
1MDB. The assets included Low’s Time Warner Center apartment, the proceeds from The Wolf of
Wall Street, as well as multiple other homes, his stake in EMI Music Publishing, and more. The
lawsuit referred to Najib as “Malaysian Official 1.” U.S. Department of Justice

Acknowledgments

Writing a book is a team endeavor, and we’re fortunate to work with a group of
talented journalists. At the Wall Street Journal, Patrick Barta, Paul Beckett, and
Ken Brown were instrumental in the success of this project.

It was Ken’s early obsession with this story that got us interested, and his
sage counsel, as Asia finance editor, kept the project on track. From his position
of Asia editor, Paul gave us cover to pursue in-depth reporting, a luxury we
don’t take for granted. His unparalleled news judgment and enthusiasm for the
story gave us impetus. Patrick skillfully edited many of our pieces, ensuring the
significance was not lost in a morass of detail, while making certain our facts
were always locked down. All three were the earliest readers of our draft
manuscript, and gave us invaluable (and honest!) feedback on structuring,
character development, and even pointing out where we had fallen into cliché.
Without them, we would not have completed this book.

Thanks to Gerard Baker, the Wall Street Journal’s former editor in chief, and
our other bosses—Thorold Barker, Dennis Berman, Rebecca Blumenstein,
Andrew Dowell, and Charles Forelle—for giving us the space and time to pursue
this project. In an age of round-the-clock news, the Journal’s commitment to
deep reporting marks it apart.

The Wall Street Journal’s talented team of lawyers and standards editors
ensured we met the highest levels of accuracy for which the paper is known.
They helped shape our coverage of an extremely complicated and contentious
issue. They include Jason Conti, Jacob Goldstein, Craig Linder, Neal Lipschutz,
Karen Pensiero, and Rob Rossi. The page-one editing team, led by Alex Martin,
and later Matthew Rose, and including Mike Allen, Dan Kelly, and Mitchell
Pacelle, skillfully shaped our pieces.

A number of fellow reporters played a significant role in the coverage of this
story: Justin Baer and Mia Lamar led the reporting on Goldman Sachs; Jake
Maxwell Watts was industrious following developments in Singapore; Kelly
Crow detailed Low’s art market purchases; while Simon Clark played an

important early role in coverage. In Los Angeles, John Emshwiller and Ben Fritz
followed the Hollywood angles, John Letzing covered investigations in
Switzerland, and Nicolas Parasie monitored events in Abu Dhabi. Rachel Louise
Ensign and Serena Ng looked at the arcane world of law funds.

Celine Fernandez’s brave and tenacious reporting in Malaysia led to early
breakthroughs on 1MDB’s role as a slush fund. James Hookway and Yantoultra
Ngui of the Journal’s Southeast Asia bureau, headed by Patrick McDowell,
covered the political reaction in Malaysia.

Paolo Bosonin and Tom Di Fonzo of the Journal’s video department
produced creative animations and a documentary on the 1MDB scandal, which
greatly enhanced our coverage. The Journal’s art department, led by Jessica Yu
and MinJung Kim, crafted original ways of bringing the scandal to life through
graphics.

Clare Rewcastle-Brown, whose Sarawak Report website broke the first
stories on Jho Low, generously shared information and helped us understand the
early stages of the fraud. Her website, replete with documents and screen grabs
of social media sites before they got taken down, was an important resource for
us.

Alex Helan, who was making a documentary about Jho Low, also shared
sources and carefully read our manuscript, proffering perceptive suggestions
about how to improve the book.

To our editor, Paul Whitlatch at Hachette Books, a huge debt of gratitude.
His deft early reading of the manuscript led us away from density and toward
lightness. It’s still a complex tale, but Paul’s sense for a story helped make this a
more readable work, and his skilled hand gave the prose more vigor. Thanks also
to our agents, Steve Troha and Dado Derviskadic at Folio Literary Management,
for seeing the potential in this project when it was just a short proposal.

Keith Richburg, director of the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and
Media Studies Center, supplied a wonderful space to work on this book and free
coffee, as well as carefully reading parts of the draft. Tiernan Downes, who read
the draft at least twice, and Nadia Chiarina offered a palatial home in Jakarta for
writing. Sue Wright and Mark Hope provided valuable feedback on style and
substance.

A number of other people read the manuscript or offered important guidance;
they include Sylvain Besson, Luca Fasani, Alex Frangos, Liz Hoffman, Mark
Hollingsworth, Deborah Kan, John Lyons, Dejan Nikolic, Andrew Peaple,
Raphael Pura, Brad Reagan, Justin Scheck, and Ben Wootliff. There are many

others we wish we could thank, but for their safety or by preference they remain
anonymous. We appreciate their trust.

Finally, our families—Tom’s wife, Nina, and Bradley’s wife, Farah—
provided real-time feedback on draft chapters and endured our obsession over
multiple years. Without their support, the book would not have been written.

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.

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