US strikes deal with Jasmine Loo to recover assets linked to 1MDB
Published on: Wednesday, July 24, 2024
By: FMT
Former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo has agreed to hand over to the US department of justice artwork and bank account proceeds valued at approximately US$1.8 million (RM8.4 million).
PETALING JAYA: The US department of justice (DoJ) has reached an agreement with former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo to recover valuable artwork and funds in a financial account in Switzerland traced back to the sovereign wealth fund.
In a statement, the DoJ said the agreement with Loo resolves a civil forfeiture action brought to recover the artwork by Pablo Picasso and bank account proceeds under her control, collectively valued at approximately US$1.8 million (RM8.4 million).
ADVERTISEMENT
"The agreement with Loo does not release any criminal claims against her," the department said.
The DoJ also said it had obtained forfeiture orders on other assets allegedly purchased by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho using 1MDB funds, including diamond jewellery and artworks by Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The forfeiture order against Low, who allegedly masterminded the looting of 1MDB, is based on a settlement agreement entered in two other cases and resolves three other civil forfeiture cases filed in the US, the DoJ said.
The collective value of these assets, including those recovered from Loo, is estimated at nearly US$85 million (RM397 million).
ADVERTISEMENT
The department previously brought numerous civil forfeiture cases against assets that it alleges were acquired by Low and his co-conspirators using funds allegedly embezzled from 1MDB.
It said that from 2009 to 2015, more than US$4.5 billion (RM21 billion) in funds belonging to 1MDB were allegedly misappropriated by high-level officials of the company and their associates, including Low and Loo, through a criminal conspiracy involving international money laundering and bribery.
ADVERTISEMENT
The DoJ added that prior to this settlement, the US had returned or assisted in the return to Malaysia of over US$1.4 billion (RM6.5 billion) in assets associated with international money laundering, embezzlement and bribery linked to 1MDB.
Low faces criminal charges in the US for allegedly conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB and for conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by allegedly paying bribes to various Malaysian and Emirati officials.
He also faces separate criminal charges linked to foreign campaign contribution offences connected to the US presidential election in 2012.
On Monday, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered Low to forfeit a trio of "flawless" diamonds he had bought for his mother from celebrity New York-based designer Lorraine Schwartz.
US district judge Dale Fischer described the diamonds as a gift from Low to his mother Evelyn and ruled that the jewels were "criminal proceeds" of the 1MDB fraud.
One of them, a ring, is reportedly valued at about US$1.17 million (RM5.46 million) while the earrings are worth about US$628,000 (RM2.9 million).
Low remains a fugitive from prosecution both in the US and Malaysia.
In June, he reached a deal with the DoJ to return more than US$100 million (RM467.3 million) in assets which the government alleges he acquired using funds from 1MDB.
He was charged along with former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng, who was convicted at trial in New York in 2022.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
