Billion Dollar Whale Read online

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2018 by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

  Jacket design by Darren Haggar

  Jacket copyright © 2018 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Hachette Books

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

  hachettebooks.com

  twitter.com/hachettebooks

  First Edition: September 2018

  Hachette Books is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Hachette Books name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-43650-2 (hardcover), 978-0-316-43648-9 (ebook), 978-0-316-45347-9 (int’l trade pbk.), 978-0-316-49067-2 (Australian int’l trade pbk.)

  E3-20181205-JV-PC-COR

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Authors’ Note

  Cast of Characters

  Prologue

  PART I

  THE INVENTION OF JHO LOW

  Chapter 1.

  Fake Photos

  Chapter 2.

  Asian Great Gatsby

  Chapter 3.

  Win Tons of Money

  Chapter 4.

  We’re Going to Need a Bigger Van

  Chapter 5.

  A Nice Toy

  Chapter 6.

  Doctor Leissner, I Presume

  Chapter 7.

  Saudi “Royalty” (The First Heist)

  Chapter 8.

  Hitting a Gold Mine

  Chapter 9.

  “I Feel the Earth Move”

  PART II

  OVERNIGHT BILLIONAIRE

  Chapter 10.

  An Evening with the Playmates

  Chapter 11.

  Raining Cristal

  Chapter 12.

  How to Spend a Billion

  Chapter 13.

  Where’s Our Money?

  Chapter 14.

  Roll the Presses

  Chapter 15.

  Welcome to New York

  Chapter 16.

  Shitty, Junk Products

  Chapter 17.

  My Good Friend, Leo

  Chapter 18.

  Two-Million-Euro Bottle Parade

  Chapter 19.

  “Keep Your Nonsense to Yourself”

  Chapter 20.

  Belfort Smells a Scam

  Chapter 21.

  Bitter Severance

  Chapter 22.

  Penthouse with a View

  Chapter 23.

  Switzerland of the East

  Chapter 24.

  Brazen Sky

  Chapter 25.

  Goldman and the Sheikh (The Second Heist)

  Chapter 26.

  Bilking the State

  PART III

  EMPIRE

  Chapter 27.

  Making Busta His Bitch

  Chapter 28.

  All the Wealth in the World

  Chapter 29.

  Mystique of the Orient

  Chapter 30.

  “681 American Pies” (The Third Heist)

  Chapter 31.

  Art No One Can See

  Chapter 32.

  Jewelers and Bankers

  Chapter 33.

  Bona Fide Business

  Chapter 34.

  140 Gigabytes

  Chapter 35.

  Leo’s Wall Street Indictment

  Chapter 36.

  The Oval Office

  Chapter 37.

  Size Matters

  Chapter 38.

  Losing Control

  PART IV

  BONFIRE OF SECRETS

  Chapter 39.

  “No Cash. No Deal.”

  Chapter 40.

  Generous Jho

  Chapter 41.

  Sacks of Money

  Chapter 42.

  The Exposé

  Chapter 43.

  Buttocks in a G-String

  Chapter 44.

  Strongman Najib

  PART V

  THE CAPTAIN’S RESOLVE

  Chapter 45.

  Prosecutor in an Oil Drum

  Chapter 46.

  Special Agent Bill McMurry

  Chapter 47.

  Partying on the Run

  Chapter 48.

  China Connection

  Chapter 49.

  Glass Half Full

  Chapter 50.

  White-Collar Crime

  Chapter 51.

  King Khadem Falls

  Epilogue

  Photos

  Acknowledgments

  Newsletters

  To Mum, Nina, Julia, and Laurence—TW

  To Farah, Joumana, and Sufiyan—BH

  Steal a little and they throw you in jail

  Steal a lot and they make you king.

  —Bob Dylan, “Sweetheart Like You”

  You get so deep into things sometimes that the abnormal seems normal and normal seems like a distant memory.

  —Jordan Belfort

  Authors’ Note

  In 2015, we began reporting on a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund after rumors started swirling about its towering debts and shadowy dealings. It was an intriguing story. Goldman Sachs had made unfathomably large profits helping the fund raise money, and the ensuing scandal over the fate of the cash threatened to topple Malaysia’s prime minister. But this was no run-of-the-mill corruption case in yet another developing country. Media reports—and sources we began speaking to—suggested that Jho Low, a little-known, twenty-seven-year-old associate of the prime minister, had himself taken the money, possibly hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars, and used it to build a Hollywood production company, commission one of the world’s grandest yachts, and throw wildly decadent parties around the globe. If true, the Low affair would represent one of the greatest financial heists in history.

  Who was Jho Low? And how did he emerge from obscurity to become the alleged mastermind of a multi-billion-dollar scam—one seemingly pulled off under the noses of the financial world? We set out to uncover Low’s true identity, and what we found was astonishing. Behind the plain outward appearance and mild manners of Low was a serial fabulist who figured out how the world really works. He was everyone’s friend, but few truly knew him beyond his reputation as one of the greatest spenders of money the jet-setting class had seen in a generation. It was not just a wild story involving Wall Street bankers, celebrities, and a silver-tongued con man. Low’s very success, at its core, was rooted in the failures of the twenty-first-century global economy. His ability to take so much, fooling Wall Street banks, auditors, and regulators; his success in using untold wealth to buy his way into friendships with the world’s most famous actors and models; and the ease with which he made everyone believe he belonged. In all of this, Low was the product of a society preoccupied with wealth and glamor. />
  We realized the amazing life of Jho Low was too incredible to fit neatly into the pages of the Wall Street Journal. By writing a book, we hoped to show in detail how Low did it, but also what drove him, and how he got away with it for so long. That larger portrait, about capitalism and inequality, told through the life of Low, would be of enduring value, we agreed.

  The material in these pages is the result of three years of research. We interviewed more than one hundred individuals in more than a dozen countries, from the tiny city of Willemstad on the island of Curaçao to Shanghai in China. The majority of people named in the book agreed to talk to us either directly or through legal representation, although a small number declined. Many of our sources insisted on anonymity for fear of physical or legal harm. Every anecdote is based on the recollection of multiple sources and in some cases backed up by photographs, videos, and other documentation. We have reviewed tens of thousands of documents, including public court records and confidential investigative documents and financial records, as well as hundreds of thousands of emails provided to authorities, during the course of investigating the case. We also relied on the official allegations contained in the Justice Department’s civil asset-forfeiture cases, as well as court proceedings in Singapore and official reports by Swiss authorities.

  As of this writing in July 2018, no public charges of criminal wrongdoing have been filed against Jho Low or most of the major characters in the book, with the exception of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Only a handful of bankers in Singapore have served jail time. As we conclude work on the book, the Justice Department is in the throes of a massive criminal investigation into Jho Low and others at the center of the case. Authorities in Malaysia, Switzerland, and Singapore continue to investigate.

  All the principal characters in this book have denied committing crimes and maintained the transactions were legal, but they have declined to provide any thorough explanation for their dealings. Jho Low, in particular, emphasizes that he has never been charged with any criminal activity in any jurisdiction and that there have been no findings of fact by any court regarding any criminal wrongdoing. Other figures readers will get to know, including Patrick Mahony and Tarek Obaid of a Swiss oil company called PetroSaudi International, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, have maintained, via lawyers, that they did nothing wrong. Any errors are our own.

  Cast of Characters

  The Low Family

  Low Taek Jho, “Jho Low”

  Low Taek Szen, “Szen Low,” his older brother

  Low May-Lin, his older sister

  Goh Gaik Ewe, his mother

  Low Hock Peng, “Larry Low,” his father

  Jesselynn Chuan Teik Ying, Jho Low’s girlfriend

  Low’s Associates

  Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, legal counsel at 1Malaysia Development, or 1MDB, a Malaysian state investment fund

  Casey Tang Keng Chee, 1MDB’s executive director

  Seet Li Lin, Wharton friend and vice president of Jynwel Capital, Low’s Hong Kong firm

  Eric Tan, “Fat Eric,” party boy and Low associate

  Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, 1MDB’s investment director

  Hamad Al Wazzan, Kuwaiti friend

  Malaysia

  Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister

  Rosmah Mansor, Najib’s wife

  Riza Aziz, Rosmah’s son by an earlier marriage; cofounder of Red Granite Pictures

  Mahathir Mohamad, former prime minister and Najib nemesis

  Anwar Ibrahim, opposition leader

  Goldman Sachs

  Timothy Leissner, chairman, Southeast Asia

  Andrea Vella, head of Goldman’s structured finance business in Asia; later cohead of investment banking, Asia

  Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive

  Gary Cohn, president

  PetroSaudi International

  Prince Turki Bin Abdullah Al Saud, cofounder

  Tarek Obaid, cofounder and chief executive officer

  Nawaf Obaid, Tarek’s brother

  Patrick Mahony, chief investment officer

  Xavier Justo, head of London office

  Abu Dhabi

  Khadem Al Qubaisi, managing director, IPIC

  Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE ambassador to the United States

  Mohamed Badawy Al Husseiny, chief executive, Aabar Investments

  Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi

  Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of Sheikh Mohammed and chairman of IPIC

  Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, chief executive of Mubadala Development

  BSI

  Hanspeter Brunner, chief executive, Asia

  Yak Yew Chee, chief relationship banker for Jho Low and 1MDB

  Yeo Jiawei, a wealth management banker who leaves to work for Jho Low

  Kevin Swampillai, head of wealth management

  AmBank

  Cheah Tek Kuang, chief executive

  Joanna Yu, banker handling Prime Minister Najib Razak’s accounts

  Falcon Bank

  Eduardo Leemann, chief executive

  Hollywood/Entertainment

  Joey McFarland, friend of Low’s; cofounder of Red Granite Pictures

  Paris Hilton, socialite

  Leonardo DiCaprio, actor

  Jamie Foxx, actor, musician

  Kasseem Dean, “Swizz Beatz,” husband of Alicia Keys, music producer

  Busta Rhymes, musician

  Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss, owners of the Strategic Hospitality Group nightclub empire

  Miranda Kerr, model

  Prakazrel Samuel Michél, “Pras,” musician

  Kate Upton, model

  Martin Scorsese, director

  Elva Hsiao, Taiwanese musician and sometime Low girlfriend

  Nicole Scherzinger, musician

  Journalists

  Clare Rewcastle-Brown, founder of Sarawak Report

  Tong Kooi Ong, owner of the Edge

  Ho Kay Tat, publisher of the Edge

  Federal Bureau of Investigation

  William “Bill” McMurry, head of international corruption squad, New York

  Robert Heuchling, lead FBI agent on the 1MDB case

  Justin McNair, FBI agent and forensic accountant on the case

  Prologue

  Las Vegas, November 3–4, 2012

  Around 6 p.m. on a warm, cloudless November night, Pras Michél, a former member of the nineties hip-hop trio the Fugees, approached one of the Chairman Suites on the fifth floor of the Palazzo hotel. Pras knocked and the door opened, revealing a rotund man, dressed in a black tuxedo, who flashed a warm smile. The man, glowing slightly with perspiration, was known to his friends as Jho Low, and he spoke in the soft-voiced lilt common to Malaysians. “Here’s my boy,” Low said, embracing the rapper.

  The Chairman Suites, at $25,000 per night, were the most opulent the Palazzo had to offer, with a pool terrace overlooking the Strip, and a modern white interior, including a karaoke room with wraparound sofas and padded walls. But the host didn’t plan to spend much time in the room tonight; Low had a much grander celebration in store for his thirty-first birthday. This was just the preparty for his inner circle, who had jetted in from across the globe. Guzzling champagne, the guests, an eclectic mix of celebrities and hangers-on, buzzed around Low, as more people arrived. Swizz Beatz, the hip-hop producer and husband of Alicia Keys, conversed animatedly with Low. At one point, Leonardo DiCaprio arrived alongside Benicio Del Toro to talk to Low about some film ideas.

  What did the guests make of their host? To many at the gathering, Low cut a mysterious figure. Hailing from Malaysia, a small Southeast Asian country that many Westerners would struggle to pinpoint on a map, Low’s round face was still boyish, with glasses, red cheeks, and barely a hint of facial hair. His unremarkable appearance was matched by an awkwardness and lack of ease in conversation, which the beautiful women around Low took to be shyness. Polite and courteous, he never seemed fully in the moment, often cutt
ing short a conversation to take a call on one of his half a dozen cell phones.

  But despite Low’s unassuming appearance, word was that he was loaded—maybe a billionaire. Guests murmured to each other that just months earlier, Low’s company had acquired a stake in EMI Music Publishing, and there was speculation that he was the money behind DiCaprio’s latest movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, which was still filming. Low’s bashful manners belied a hard core of ambition the like of which the world rarely sees. Look more closely, and Low was not so much timid as quietly calculating, as if computing every human interaction, sizing up what he could provide for someone and what they, in turn, could do for him. Despite his age, Low had a weird gravitas, allowing him to hold his own in a room of grizzled Wall Street bankers or pampered Hollywood types. For years, he’d methodically cultivated the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet. The bold strategy had placed him in their orbit and landed him a seat here in the Palazzo. Now, he was the one doling out favors.

  The night at the Palazzo marked the apex of Low’s ascendancy. The guest list for his birthday included Hollywood stars, top bankers from Goldman Sachs, and powerful figures from the Middle East. In the aftermath of the U.S. financial crisis, they all wanted a piece of Low. Pras Michél had lost his place in the limelight since the Fugees disbanded, but was hoping to reinvent himself as a private-equity investor, and Low held out the promise of funding. Some celebrities had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in appearance fees from Low just to turn up at his events, and they were keen to keep him happy.