Jho Low must forfeit mum’s trio of ‘flawless’ diamonds, rules US Court

NEW YORK: Low Taek Jho, the alleged mastermind of the looting of Malaysia’s 1MDB fund, was ordered to forfeit a trio of “flawless” diamonds he bought for his mother that were from the jeweler who’s designed for celebrities like Beyonce and Adele.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday ordered the fugitive Malaysian financier, known as Jho Low, to surrender claims to a 7.35 carat diamond ring as well as matching diamond earrings both greater than 3 carats. The judge ruled they were purchased in the looting of billions of dollars from the Malaysian fund. The ring is valued at about US$1.17mil and the earrings are worth about US$628,000, the US says.

The three diamonds were created by prestigious New York-based designer Lorraine Schwartz, who US prosecutors said also made a US$23mil necklace – with a pink diamond big enough to be a paperweight – and personally delivered it to Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, according to court testimony in the US.

US District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles described the diamonds as a gift from Low to his mother Evelyn and ruled that the jewels were “criminal proceeds” of the 1MDB fraud.

Low remains a fugitive from prosecution by both US authorities and Malaysia. He reached a deal in June with the US Justice Department to return more than US$100mil of assets which the government alleges he acquired using funds from 1Malaysia Development Bhd. He was charged along with former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng, who was convicted at trial in New York in 2022.

Meanwhile, in a related case, Jasmine Loo, a former lawyer for 1MDB, was ordered Monday to forfeit a Pablo Picasso pencil sketch drawing titled “Trois Femmes Nues et Buste d’Homme,” which she purchased for about US$1.4mil. Loo, who was charged by Malaysia authorities and testified against Najib this year, also agreed to surrender US$25,000 held in a Swiss bank account, according to an order signed Monday by Fischer. – Bloomberg