Najib likely ‘disengaged’ from Jho Low’s 1MDB operations, says WSJ journalist

(MMO) – Datuk Seri Najib Razak may not have been fully aware about how fugitive financier Low Taek Jho ran 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Wall Street Journal reporter Tom Wright told local news site Coconuts in an interview published today.

Wright, who co-authored the book Billion Dollar Whale, said the former prime minister was likely “disengaged” with the day-to-day processes that allowed Low to steal from the sovereign investment fund.

At the same time, he believes Najib likely knew that 1MDB was run like a “political slush fund”.

“I’m sure he knew it was a political slush fund, that they were getting hundreds of millions of dollars for Umno, and that his family was getting mansions and running film companies and all this kind of thing,” Wright said in the interview.

“But did Najib know that Jho Low had run the fund in a way that took out US$4.5 billion, US$5 billion, maybe US$6 billion dollars (RM24.6 billion)? I don’t think so. I think he was disengaged from the day-to-day processes in a way that Jho Low was not.

“Jho Low was running the show,” he added.

Najib was 1MDB chairman but claimed not all its transactions required his approval. The Pekan MP continues to deny any wrongdoing.

Wright and colleague Bradley Hope were behind WSJ’s exposes of the 1MDB scandal that spanned over three years; their work culminated in the Billion Dollar Whale.

The book, which details Low’s alleged role in the 1MDB corruption, is due for a global release on September 18, but early editions have been out in Malaysia since last week.

In the interview with Coconuts chief editor Chad Williams, Wright shared details of information he uncovered during the course of the investigation into Low’s activities, mostly enabled by people in powerful positions.

Yet Wright said evidence collected and put together from numerous countries pointed to Low as the “puppet master”.

“We got hold of WhatsApp messages between Jho Low and a number of people, including bankers at Malaysian banks, where he is clearly directing them to do this with money, do that with money, move money into the prime minister’s accounts, out of his accounts,” he was quoted saying.

“You saw through those WhatsApp messages that he was the puppet master telling the bank that US$680 million (RM2.6 billion at the time of transaction) would be arriving from overseas he was the center of the spider web.”

Wright also said Low likely felt he was untouchable because of his ties to Najib. This sense of impunity was reflected in how the Penang-born bought the RM1 billion super yacht Equanimity, despite the growing media and Opposition scrutiny over 1MDB at the time.

“Any sort of conservative, rationale thief would be filling the hole, right? But he doesn’t fill the hole, he gets a new loan from Deutsche Bank, and he uses part of it to buy that yacht,” Wright said in the interview.

“We had a big whiteboard when we were writing the book trying to work out ‘what’s Jho Low’s game plan’, but there never seemed to be much of a game plan to fill the holes or to make the business sustainable.

“It’s just taking every opportunity to buy the next thing. And I think that came from the impunity he felt by being close to the prime minister in that system.”

Last week Deputy Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim confirmed that up to RM2.7 billion of money traced to 1MDB was deposited into Najib’s personal bank account.

The former prime minister previously claimed the money was a gift from a Saudi royalty, which maintained in a statement issued as a response to the announcement made by the police.

Najib has been charged with multiple counts of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power in connection with SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

Low and his father, Tan Sri Larry Low, were charged with money laundering in absentia at the Sessions Court in Putrajaya last month. Warrants of arrest have been issued for the father-and-son but they continue to elude the authorities.

Low junior set up a new website called jho-low.com and issued a personal letter today, his first direct statement to date, to proclaim his innocence.