Fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low will forfeit greater than $100 million, including a luxury Paris apartment and works by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol, to settle civil forfeiture cases over his role in a bribery and embezzlement scandal 1MDB.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the forfeiture on Wednesday after U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles approved a plea agreement with Low and his family on Monday.
The confiscated assets include nearly $1 billion, including a $120 million “superyacht” that Low and his family previously lost.
Low still faces money laundering and bribery conspiracy charges in Brooklyn, New York, related to 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund also referred to as 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
U.S. and Malaysian authorities said greater than $4.5 billion was looted from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015, with a number of the money transferred to overseas bank accounts and shell firms linked to Low.
The financier helped former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak arrange 1MDB to advertise economic development.
Goldman Sachs, which helped 1MDB sell the bonds, reached a $2.9 billion settlement in 2020 in a U.S. criminal case involving 1MDB. The bank will not be a part of civil forfeiture.
Low’s lawyers didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
The Justice Department said Low paid about $35 million for Monet’s “Vetheuil au Soleil,” Warhol’s “Colorful Campbell’s Soup Can (Emerald Green),” 1965, and an apartment in Paris.
Low and his family may even hand over properties and bank accounts value $67 million in Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it helped repay Malaysia greater than $1.5 billion related to 1MDB, the department’s largest-ever civil forfeiture case.
