The Las Vegas Strip, November 2012. Inside a colossal tent, a private world of extreme indulgence had been constructed for one night only. An indoor ferris wheel spun under a glittering roof, its gondolas carrying celebrity guests high above the dancefloor. A 24ft bar sculpted entirely from solid ice gleamed, serving endless streams of champagne and premium spirits. The air thrummed with a dizzying mix of hip-hop beats and laughter.
Guests, including the reality TV star Kim Kardashian, the actor Robert De Niro and the Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps, moved through the lavish space observing the unfolding spectacle, a display of wealth so over the top that Robin Leach, a longtime chronicler of celebrity excess, declared it the most expensive private party ever held in Vegas.
This was the 31st birthday of a mysterious Malaysian businessman called Jho Low, whose immense fortune was, to many, an enigma. Later in the night, the pop star Britney Spears burst from a giant cake, belting out “Happy Birthday” to a bemused-looking Low, amid a blizzard of confetti. Leonardo DiCaprio, seemingly drunk, took to the stage, rapping along with Q-Tip. Performances by the Korean pop sensation Psy and the hip-hop artist Swizz Beatz added to the bling.
Among the crowd that surreal night was Tim Leissner, a partner at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, a little out of place among the who’s who of Hollywood. Many of the guests, including some of the world’s most famous celebrities, had received payments from Low, who in 2015 was revealed to be the mastermind of one of the largest financial crimes in history. But none of them had received more than Leissner.
Almost 13 years after this infamous party, a Brooklyn federal judge sentenced Leissner, a 53-year-old German national, to two years in jail for helping Low steal $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s 1MDB, a state fund set up in 2009, purportedly to help develop the southeast Asian nation’s economy.
Instead, Low used it to create a fantasy world: he personally financed the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street (starring DiCaprio), funded extravagant parties where he was photographed with Paris Hilton among other celebrities, and acquired superyachts, private jets, luxury homes in big cities and priceless artworks.
He also made secret payments to officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi who gave him cover, as well as bankers such as Leissner, who used his share of the loot—about $60 million—to buy a 170ft yacht, real estate in London and New York, as well as a stake in the football club Inter Milan.
A flurry of recent legal developments has refocused global attention on this epic theft, a decade after its true scale became apparent. As well as Leissner’s imprisonment, a historic first for a Goldman partner, Malaysia’s jailed former prime minister, Najib Razak, 71, who protected Low, is now fighting a legal battle for house arrest, while his wife navigates her own appeals.
For years Low has been a ghost, moving secretly between countries—he has been wanted by Interpol since 2016. Recently, the whereabouts of the 43-year-old fugitive have finally been revealed through bombshell testimony in Malaysian court proceedings. He is in China, and is said to be untouchable not least because of what he knows about state corruption there.
Beyond these headlines, Malaysia is aggressively seeking the return of stolen funds from American celebrities such as Swizz Beatz, many of whom were guests at the party in Las Vegas, highlighting the absurd reach of this fraud.
Whether justice is served, years after the crimes were committed, is a critical test for our global systems of finance, justice and democracy. The fight for justice over 1MDB is showing us exactly how strong—or weak—the foundations of those systems are.
Who Is Jho Low?
Born Low Taek Jho in Penang, Malaysia, in 1981, Low came from a moderately wealthy family. A transformative moment in his life and ambitions came in the late 1990s when he was sent to board in Britain, at Harrow School.
Suddenly he was studying alongside the mega-rich—the children of Arab businessmen and Brunei royalty. While he was in England he met Riza Aziz, who would prove to be a key contact—he was the stepson of the Malaysian politician Najib, who would later serve as the country’s prime minister.
Low went on to study at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania—though reportedly he did not graduate. For Low, an inveterate name-dropper, building his network was more important. In 2009 he positioned himself as an unofficial adviser to a newly established sovereign wealth fund for Malaysia’s Terengganu state.
Soon after Najib became prime minister in 2009, the Malaysian federal government took over the fund and changed its name to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). It quickly became a political slush fund for Najib.
Through a series of complex fraudulent transactions involving shell companies and illicit joint ventures, Low siphoned billions of dollars from the fund. This included a joint venture with a Saudi oil company, the issuance of bonds by Goldman Sachs, and other seemingly legitimate investments that were, in fact, conduits for theft.
While many people were implicated, only Low knew the true, full extent of the money he was stealing. The money was then laundered through various international financial institutions and used to fuel his extravagant lifestyle and bribe officials.
He used these stolen funds to build a Hollywood empire, financing hit movies and positioning himself as a bona fide businessman. He lavished gifts on the stars who came into his orbit—giving DiCaprio a Picasso painting and a Basquiat collage.
Testifying in court in 2023, the actor said he had understood Low to be a “prodigy in the business world” and that Low was vetted by his team before his investment in The Wolf of Wall Street. In 2014 Low briefly dated the Australian model Miranda Kerr and gave her gifts including $8 million in jewelery. Both stars co-operated with the authorities and relinquished Low’s gifts.
Low also sought to acquire leading brands such as Reebok and Tom Ford, the maker of James Bond’s suits, before his scheme came crashing down after a cache of documents were leaked to the media in 2015, sparking a number of investigations.
The Goldman Sachs Connection
Many think Goldman Sachs, whose brand had already been damaged by the 2008 subprime crisis, has got off lightly. The bank helped 1MDB raise $6.5 billion in bonds issued on global markets in 2012 and 2013, making $600 million in profits—a huge figure that raised eyebrows at the time.
Goldman has always claimed Leissner and another employee called Roger Ng acted as lone wolves. They circumvented Goldman Sachs’s internal compliance systems and bribed officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to secure the 1MDB bond deals. Leaders at the bank said they had no knowledge the money was being stolen.
In a letter to the court, Goldman’s chief lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, said that Leissner had “deceived many people”. Ruemmler argued that Leissner deceived Goldman’s compliance department, senior management and the bank’s external legal counsel, leading them to believe the 1MDB transactions were legitimate.
However, Judge Margo Brodie, overseeing Leissner’s sentencing, pointed out that others at Goldman knew what Leissner was doing but “looked the other way because everyone was getting rich”.
Prosecutor Drew Rolle sharply criticized Goldman’s stance, comparing the bank’s arguments to “a getaway driver showing up at a co-operator’s sentencing and saying, ‘You know, judge, we wouldn’t be in this mess if he hadn’t decided to rob a bank.’”
Leissner’s decision to plead guilty in 2018 was crucial, admitting to conspiring to launder money and violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. As a highly influential partner at Goldman Sachs, serving as chairman of southeast Asia and managing director, Leissner orchestrated and facilitated the fraudulent 1MDB bond deals. He admitted to paying bribes to foreign officials to secure these lucrative deals for Goldman, and then using the bank’s systems to move the illicit proceeds, which constitutes money laundering.
His co-operation gave prosecutors key information, helping to convict Ng, a more junior Goldman employee, of conspiring to launder money and break an anti-bribery law. In court, Leissner apologized to the people of Malaysia.
He had lost his career, freedom, financial independence and family, he said. “I lost my will to live,” he added. “I tried to take as many pills as I could to end it … it was absolute rock bottom.” But Malaysia’s plantation and commodities minister, Johari Abdul Ghani, said Leissner’s sentence was “too short”, calling him “one of the masterminds”.
Despite missed red flags and internal warnings about Low at Goldman Sachs—he was denied a private bank account there, for instance, because the bank could not verify the source of his wealth—none of Goldman’s high-ranking individuals were implicated in any wrongdoing.
Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive, retired. His former second-in-command, Gary Cohn, later became an economic adviser in the Trump administration. David Solomon, who was co-head of the investment banking division during the 1MDB scandal, is now Goldman’s CEO.
The US government ultimately reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Goldman. In addition, a Malaysian branch of Goldman pleaded guilty to breaking anti-bribery laws. The bank paid a huge $2.9 billion penalty in the US and also agreed to a $3.9 billion settlement with the Malaysian government. The combined almost $7 billion was the largest fine ever in US history against a bank for foreign bribery.
This certainly hurt Goldman. But for a global banking giant, such fines are increasingly seen as just the cost of doing business. Goldman reported net profits of $9.5 billion in 2020, an astonishing $21.6 billion in 2021 and $11.3 billion in 2022.
The massive profits from high-risk activities often make even these record penalties seem small. The fact that the main bank wasn’t criminally charged leads to a frustrating conclusion: some institutions are simply “too big to jail”.
Celebrities Caught in the Crossfire
Beyond Leissner and Goldman, the 1MDB scandal continues to lead to legal battles and efforts to claw money back around the world—including from the celebrities Low courted. DiCaprio, 50, and Kerr, 42, have co-operated with the US Department of Justice and returned millions in gifts. But others who received presents or payments have held on to them.
Among them is Kasseem Dean, 46—a.k.a. the American hip-hop producer and artist Swizz Beatz—who, along with his companies, allegedly received more than $7.3 million from Low and his associates. This sum included direct transfers to Dean and his companies Swizz Beatz Productions and Monza Studios, which allegedly facilitated Low’s lavish lifestyle and art acquisitions.
While Dean has previously surrendered an Andy Warhol painting given to him by Low, he is facing a lawsuit filed by the joint liquidators of the defrauded 1MDB shell companies in a New York federal court. Dean’s legal team has moved to dismiss the claim, asserting that he had only a “passing acquaintance” with Low and denying involvement in any fraudulent activity.
Other celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, 44, and Pharrell Williams, 52, have been drawn into Malaysia’s efforts to retrieve funds. A financial fraud investigator testified in Malaysian court proceedings last year that hundreds of thousands of dollars went from a shell company controlled by Low to Kardashian.
The FBI later interviewed Kardashian, who told them how she had won $350,000 on one occasion in Vegas, betting with Low’s money, Bloomberg reported, citing FBI documents. Kardashian told investigators that she flew back to Los Angeles with a trash bag full of $250,000 in $100 bills.
Williams received more than $2 million from Low’s shell company, the court heard. Low wanted Pharrell to produce music for a Taiwanese singer whom Low was dating at the time. It remains unclear whether Malaysian authorities have sought the return of these funds from Kardashian and Williams.
Perhaps Low’s strangest celebrity friendship was with Pras Michél, 52, of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees.
Michél was recently found guilty in the US for his part in a complex conspiracy to bribe officials in the first Trump administration, aiming to halt ongoing investigations into 1MDB and Low himself.
His conviction on charges of illegal campaign contributions and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China without notifying the US government highlights the audacious and elaborate measures taken by Low to protect his ill-gotten gains and maintain his freedom. Michél faces up to 20 years in jail.
The Fugitive Protected by China
One of the biggest mysteries has been the whereabouts of Low, the only person who knows where all the money is buried. But recent, reliable testimony by Jasmine Loo—a former 1MDB lawyer who was on the run for several years and has been giving important testimony in Malaysia as part of Najib Razak’s ongoing trials—has clearly placed Low in China.
Why is an international fugitive, wanted by many countries for one of the world’s biggest financial crimes, seemingly untouchable in China? The answer appears to lie in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive global infrastructure development strategy launched by the Chinese government in 2013, aiming to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land and maritime networks.
Low possesses highly sensitive and potentially damaging information about corruption within the BRI, according to official Malaysian government papers that detailed the corruption. When the first media stories about Low’s fraud came out in 2015, he fled to China.
With Najib still in power in Malaysia, Low was able to operate as an unofficial government minister for him and he began to negotiate for Chinese state spending on Malaysian infrastructure projects such as railways. The idea was for Low and Chinese officials to share the stolen money skimmed off these projects. But in 2018 Najib lost power and was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2020, ending the scheme.
Even though some Chinese officials involved in those corrupt dealings have faced their own reckoning and gone to jail, Beijing still doesn’t want Low to be sent back to Malaysia. If he testified in a public trial, it could reveal state secrets and cause great embarrassment for the Chinese government. Even Malaysia’s current prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has acknowledged this, saying recently that bringing Low back would “ruffle some feathers” and that some quarters may not want him returned as he “would probably expose more”.
Ten years after the crime was exposed, it still remains unclear exactly how much was stolen. The US Justice Department’s often-cited $4.5 billion in stolen funds is widely regarded as a floor for the size of the scandal. The DOJ has returned $1.4 billion to Malaysia—the proceeds of the sales of seized mansions, artworks, private planes, yachts and other baubles. Together with the $2.5 billion paid to Malaysia so far by Goldman, the country has recovered a large chunk of its lost funds.
But Malaysia says the DOJ’s number doesn’t include the interest it continues to pay on the Goldman bonds, as well as losses related to inflated infrastructure project costs. Meanwhile, Goldman has refused to pay the remaining $1.4 billion, claiming Malaysia has violated its obligations under the original settlement. The matter is under arbitration proceedings in London.
Malaysia is going after other banks too, including BSI, a now defunct Swiss private bank that Low used to move stolen funds. Recently Malaysia achieved a significant win in asset recovery efforts in Singapore: a court allowed 1MDB and its subsidiary Brazen Sky to proceed with a $394 million claim against BSI over alleged misconduct, dismissing BSI’s appeal to strike out the lawsuit.
Imperfect Justice
Ten years ago, when the 1MDB crime was first unearthed, it seemed unlikely anyone would be held accountable. The idea that a sitting prime minister would ever face consequences seemed impossible. Najib appeared untouchable.
But surprisingly, after losing Malaysia’s 2018 election—where he considered calling out the army to declare a state of emergency and nullify the results—he eventually went to jail on charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering related to 1MDB. He received a 12-year sentence. But last year it was cut in half by Malaysia’s pardons board. This means he could be released in August 2028 if he pays a fine of approximately $10.6 million.
His 73-year-old wife, Rosmah Mansor, is still not in jail despite being found guilty in her own related corruption case. She was convicted of soliciting and receiving bribes in exchange for government contracts related to solar power projects for rural schools. She has been granted a delay while she appeals.
Najib is engaged in a legal battle to serve his reduced sentence under house arrest, claiming a “royal addendum” from the former king entitles him to this—a claim denied by the pardons board’s secretariat, sparking legal challenges at the federal court. Recent surveys indicate a majority of Malaysians oppose his pardon, but he remains a political force in the country.
Justice in the 1MDB case is far from a complete picture. The biggest unresolved issue, the most glaring missing piece of justice, is the continued freedom of Jho Low.
While parts of his network have been dismantled and his assets seized, his freedom—supposedly protected by a secret deal with a leading global power—highlights the limits of traditional justice. Until Low faces his punishment, the cloud of impunity will hang over the billions still missing, and the story of 1MDB will remain unfinished.
Tom Wright is the co-founder of Brazen, a film-and-TV production company, and publisher of the Whale Hunting podcast
