HONG KONG (SCMP): Jho Low, the flamboyant financier behind one of the world’s largest financial scandals, vanished years ago, leaving behind a trail of opulence, deceit and unanswered questions.
But two journalists are determined to bring his shadowy story back into the light – with a satirical website, a memecoin and some blockchain bounties.
Low, accused of orchestrating Malaysia’s multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, once partied with Hollywood elites and brokered billion-dollar deals, but has since become a virtual ghost. Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, the duo behind the bestselling 2018 expose Billion Dollar Whale, are determined to turn the world’s eyes back on him.
Their website, WhereIsJho.xyz, offers cryptocurrency rewards for credible tips on Low’s whereabouts – or any new information about the billions that were plundered from Malaysia’s former state investment fund.
“The bounty isn’t just for Jho Low’s location,” Hope told This Week in Asia. “We’re looking for anything – from where the money went to unreleased documents, photos, or phone recordings. There are still huge gaps in the 1MDB story.”
To incentivise whistle-blowers, the pair are using $JHOLOW, a newly created memecoin adopted as a reward mechanism. While many memecoins are seen as internet jokes at best or scams at worst, Wright and Hope are treating $JHOLOW as a serious tool for uncovering the truth.
“What if a memecoin actually had a purpose?” Hope asked. “We’re not telling people to invest their savings. It’s more like a game, a kind of maverick spectator sport with real-world stakes.”
Multibillion-dollar scandal
The 1MDB scandal exploded onto the world stage as one of the largest kleptocracy cases in history. What was supposed to be a government initiative to drive Malaysia’s economic development became a slush fund for corruption and money laundering.
At the heart of it all was Low, a prodigy of excess whose billions bankrolled everything from political campaigns to extravagant purchases, such as the US$250 million superyacht Equanimity and Hollywood blockbusters like The Wolf of Wall Street.
Prosecutors have described Low as the “alter ego” and “mirror image” of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who is currently serving prison time for his role in the fraud.
Together, they siphoned off billions meant for Malaysia’s development, leaving the country saddled with debt that will take decades to repay.
Low, meanwhile, remains a fugitive. Since fleeing Malaysia in 2018, his whereabouts have been unknown.
Over the years, rumours have placed him everywhere from Macau to Myanmar and Hong Kong. In 2019, Malaysia’s then-police chief even suggested he may have undergone plastic surgery, claiming Low now “resembles a bear” and walked “like a wild ox.”
The financier himself maintains his innocence, putting out a statement in 2021 saying that he would only submit to a jurisdiction with an independent legal process, where his guilt had not been “predetermined” by politicians.
Crowdsourcing justice
Through WhereIsJho.xyz, Wright and Hope hope to unearth new clues.
The site invites users to submit tips, which are then vetted by the team. Some submissions have already yielded results, including previously unseen photos of Low at a Las Vegas party, wearing Adidas and Hermès with an inflatable crown on his head.
Another tip led to the discovery of a golden bust of Low styled to look like a Roman emperor – an image likewise previously unknown to the public. The whistle-blower who shared the photo was rewarded US$2,700 in $JHOLOW.
“There are people out there in the world with all kinds of fragments of tips,” Hope said. “They’re each holding some very obscure information that nobody else has. And we just want them to bring it out.”
The project was inspired in part by whistle-blower systems in the US, which offer informants multimillion-dollar payouts. While WhereIsJho.xyz doesn’t offer such sums, the team believes financial incentives will help to chase down new leads.
“There’s this utopian idea that whistle-blowers do it just to be good citizens,” Hope said. “But in reality, people leak things because they feel wronged, angry, or see an opportunity. We’re just trying to give people a reason to speak up – even now, years later.”
For Malaysia, the consequences of 1MDB are far from over. The country remains on the hook for more than 42 billion ringgit (US$9.5 billion) in debt tied to the scandal. To date, over 48 billion ringgit has been spent repaying creditors – funds that could have built nearly 100 hospitals or 558 schools.
With help from authorities in the US, Switzerland and Singapore, Malaysia’s government recently announced it had recovered 70 per cent of the stolen funds. But Wright and Hope believe there’s more to uncover.
“We know there are people in Malaysia, the US, the UK, and Singapore – each holding a fragment of this story. This is a chance to bring them together,” Hope said.
The multi-month project’s ultimate goal goes beyond locating Low. It seeks to meticulously reconstruct the 1MDB story with as much detail as possible, while rewarding collaborators for their efforts.
Though $JHOLOW is a memecoin, its potential for profit is anything but trivial. Much like the notorious Dogecoin, which gained fame and soared in value with the backing of Elon Musk, such fringe digital currencies can transform the fortunes of their holders.
What’s more, if a tip garners enough interest and boosts the value of $JHOLOW, those holding the coin stand to benefit a second time – so long as they haven’t already cashed out.
Hope stressed that the identity of sources was always protected, despite their tips being posted publicly in the interest of transparency. The verification process is thorough and time-consuming, involving research, contacting sources and consultations with authorities.
But the allure of the bounties is undeniable. The project’s website shows that even minor corroborating details can earn small rewards, while a major breakthrough could lead to the largest payout of all.
So far, most engagement has come from the United States, where the idea of a memecoin is more familiar to the public, but Hope said they would “love for Malaysians to take part”.
“This is where it all started,” he said. “We’re not the police. We can’t arrest Jho Low. But we can do what we do best – tell the story better than before.”
For Wright and Hope, who also produced a podcast on the scandal, the dream tip wouldn’t be an arrest, but an interview.
“We’d love for Jho Low to say, ‘Enough. I’ll sit down and talk’,” Hope said. “No judgments, just tell your version of events. That would be the perfect ending.”
Until then, the hunt continues. - South China Morning Post/ANN
