{"id":12676,"date":"2018-08-25T02:25:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T02:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12676"},"modified":"2018-08-25T02:25:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-25T02:25:40","slug":"malaysian-financier-jho-low-charged-over-massive-1mdb-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12676","title":{"rendered":"Malaysian financier Jho Low charged over massive 1MDB scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A fugitive Malaysian financier at the centre of a massive corruption scandal that helped bring down the government of Najib Razak has been charged with eight counts of money-laundering charges, police said.<\/p>\n

The move on Friday is seen as a key step to extradite businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, a key player in the alleged plunder of state fund 1MDB.<\/p>\n

Reports say Low is currently in mainland China, after allegedly fleeing Macau.<\/p>\n

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Ex-Malaysian PM granted bail on money-laundering charges<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The corruption allegations were a major factor in the defeat of Najib, who set up and oversaw 1MDB, in an election in May.<\/p>\n

Amar Singh, head of the police commercial crimes unit, told AFP news agency that the businessman was hit with eight charges in absentia at a court in the administrative capital, Putrajaya.<\/p>\n

The charges were under anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing legislation. Low’s father was also charged with one count of transferring money to his son.<\/p>\n

Warrants were also issued for their arrest.<\/p>\n

Reports said the moves will pave the way for authorities to seek the men’s extradition, as the pair must be present in court for a trial to proceed.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Low said he maintained his innocence.<\/p>\n

“It is abundantly clear that it would be impossible for Mr Low to get a fair trial in Malaysia, where the government has proven time and time again that they have no interest in the rule of law,” the spokesman said, in a statement via the financier’s lawyers.<\/p>\n

Luxury yacht, private jet<\/h2>\n

Najib and his cronies were accused of plundering billions of dollars from 1MDB, and new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has reopened investigations into the controversy.<\/p>\n

The US Justice Department, which is seeking to recover assets allegedly bought with looted money, alleges that $4.5bn was stolen.<\/p>\n

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Exclusive interview: Malaysia PM Mahathir Mohamad<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Low, who held no official role at 1MDB but was believed to exert great influence over the fund, was allegedly responsible for many big-ticket purchases.<\/p>\n

These include a $250m luxury yacht that was returned to Malaysia earlier this month after being seized in Indonesia.<\/p>\n

On Friday, a Malaysian court agreed to a request by the government to sell the 90-metre Equanimity, which boasts a swimming pool, a helipad and a cinema.<\/p>\n

The court will decide later who receives the proceeds from the sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a private plane worth $35m<\/a>, believed to be owned by Low and a subject of the ongoing 1MDB investigation, has been grounded for months at an airport in Singapore.<\/p>\n

Last week, Singapore said that an official request has not yet been filed by Malaysia to recover the Bombardier Global 5000 jet.<\/p>\n

Since his election defeat, Najib has been arrested and charged over the scandal. He denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fugitive Malaysian financier at the centre of a massive corruption scandal that helped bring down the government of Najib Razak has been charged with eight counts of money-laundering charges, police said. The move on Friday is seen as a key step to extradite businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, a key…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}