Jho Low

Low Taek Jho (Chinese: 刘特佐; pinyin: Liú Tèzuǒ; Jyutping: Lau4 Dak1 Zou2), often called Jho Low, is a Malaysian financier and agent. He gained notoriety as a "tabloid party boy" in New York. He is reported to have a close relationship with Riza Aziz, the stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Low has been associated with numerous high value transactions, including acquisitions of businesses, luxury real estate and art, as well as philanthropy. These transactions are sometimes opaque, leaving it unclear whether Low is acting as an agent or on his own behalf. Low runs a Hong Kong-based finance company called Jynwel Capital; Low is also the co-director of the philanthropic arm of Jynwel Capital. Jho Low, a financier turned fugitive whom authorities in the United States and Malaysia described as the architect of a brazen scheme that also ensnared a prime minister and one of Wall Street’s most powerful banks, Goldman Sachs. The stolen money was used to buy everything from paintings by Van Gogh and Monet to a custom-built yacht to a see-through grand piano. Some of the cash helped finance “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which earned Leonardo DiCaprio a Golden Globe for his performance as the stock-market scammer Jordan Belfort. In July 2020 a Beverly Hills hotel — the last of Mr. Low’s marquee properties to be sold by federal authorities — was being auctioned off, with proceeds to be split between the governments of Malaysia and the United States.