Hong Kong-based businessman, Jho Low, faces new fraud allegations

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 21 July, 2015, 6:18am

Controversial Hong Kong-based businessman Jho Low is facing a renewed barrage of accusations for allegedly trying to defraud a troubled state-owned wealth fund with fresh evidence of him supposedly funnelling at least US$700 million into a company linked to him.

In a report titled "How Jho Low and PetroSaudi schemed to steal money from the people of Malaysia via 1MDB", Malaysian business publication The Edge Financial Daily also implicates Hong Kong finance company Bridge Partners in the widening scandal. The daily accused it of being part of a web of complex financial transfers attempting to cover the US$2.23 billion hole in the fund's balance sheet.

The scandal revolved around a US$2.5 billion joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi Holdings. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been embroiled in the scandal, after reports said investigators traced hundreds of millions of dollars to three bank accounts owned by him.

In the latest salvo, The Edge, which has published a series of exposes on the case in the past, detailed the linkages between Low and various transactions of moving monies.

It said that in September 2009, PetroSaudi gave the new joint venture company a US$700 million loan, which was then repaid directly from 1MDB to Good Star Limited, which Low controlled, according to The Edge.

Between June 2011 and September 2013, US$529 million was transferred from Good Star to a Singapore bank account whose beneficial owner was Low.

The publication said 1MDB later sold a 49 per cent interest in PetroSaudi Oil Services Limited to Hong Kong's Bridge Partners International, for promissory notes rather than cash. Contacted by the Post, both Bridge Partners and Low's spokesperson declined to comment.

Under investigation from Malaysian authorities for allegedly publishing "unverified news", The Edge said the report into the scandal could be its last article
.