Malaysia is set to receive 12 pieces of fine art – including works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Henri Matisse – after discussions with US officials to repatriate assets tied to the global corruption scandal at 1MDB.
The works are being held by Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses in the United States and estimated to have a combined value of over US$30 million, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement on Saturday. They were purchased by Jasmine Loo, a former lawyer for the state investment fund, and have been under the custody of the US Department of Justice.
Talks between the MACC, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation this week in the US also covered fugitive Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, and Fugees rapper Pras Michel, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in part for conspiring to aid Low.
Low, the alleged mastermind behind the US$4.5 billion 1MDB scandal, is said to be hiding in China. Malaysia has been working for years to repatriate Low, who was first charged in absentia in 2018 by a local court with eight counts of money laundering.
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In September, Malaysia said it had recovered more assets linked to Low with Singapore’s help, following a global civil forfeiture settlement between the financier and the US Justice Department.
The Justice Department has said that “there remain assets belonging to Jho Low in Singapore which are not included in the US Settlement Agreement”. the MACC said on Saturday.
The MACC also said other issues discussed involved former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner; businessman Tarek Obaid and his company PetroSaudi; and Riza Aziz, the movie producer stepson of the former prime minister Najib Razak.