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In this episode of American Greed.

No one knows how to party like Jolo.

So he was known as a whale of the nightclub scene.

The mysterious businessman drops as much as $500 ,000 a night.

Even for bankers that he was going out with, they weren't used to this kind of

spending. He buys a quarter -billion -dollar super yacht and dates

He would buy Bergen bags as gifts for the different models.

He was spending $10 million or $20 million at Las Vegas casinos.

He pals around with celebrities like Leo DiCaprio and even finances their

movies. Joe Bell gave Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar that Marlon Brando originally

won. for on the waterfront. But the feds say no one knows how to steal like Jolo

either and steal on a scale the world has never seen.

This is one of the largest economic crimes in the history of the world.

the man behind what may be the biggest theft of all time.

Then when I find out it was $4 .5 billion.

I was shocked. And the New York bankers and other VIPs who benefited from his

big bucks.

It's so interesting, the friendships that money can bring, right? Too many

people are happy to take money without asking any questions.

You don't question when somebody's a billionaire where the money's coming

It's awards season in Hollywood.

In January 2014,

the Hollywood Foreign Press honors the best film and television productions at

the 71st Golden Globe Ceremony.

Familiar faces grace the red carpet.

Martin Scorsese, Tom Hanks, Idris Elba.

One of the films nominated this year is Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall

Street.

Based on the memoirs of disgraced stockbroker and former American greed

Jordan Belfort, a .k .a. the Wolf of Wall Street.

Belfort pleaded guilty to stealing more than $100 million from investors.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Belfort in a remarkable performance.

I'm talking about this.

The film is a box office smash, making nearly $400 million internationally.

Scorsese's highest -grossing film of his career. I know you're not following

what I'm saying anyway, right? That's okay. For his efforts, DiCaprio is

the Golden Globe for Best Actor, Musical or Comedy.

Goes to Leonardo DiCaprio.

When he accepts the award, DiCaprio is specific in his thanks.

Joey, Riz, Joe, thank you. Joey, Riz, and Joe, thank you for being not only

collaborators but taking a risk on this movie, truly.

Joey and Riz are Joey McFarland and Riza Aziz, the producers and founders of the

production company Red Granite Pictures.

Joe is 33 -year -old Joe Lowe, the principal funder of the movie.

The story goes that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to make The

Wolf of Wall Street and had purchased the rights to the Jordan Belfort story.

It was too expensive to make, the studio said.

And so Leonardo DiCaprio and Jolo decided together that Jolo would

finance The Wolf of Wall Street.

Leonardo DiCaprio became very close to Jolo.

You know, in the credits of The Wolf of Wall Street, at the very end, there's a

note. Special thanks, Joe Lowe. But Joe Lowe is no ordinary financier.

Authorities say he's the architect behind a massive world -class theft,

$4 .5 billion from the country of Malaysia.

I think it's safe to say this is one of the greatest frauds of all time,

certainly in our time. And it's also, it's bigger than things like even the

Bernie Madoff scandal.

Leonardo DiCaprio's award -winning film is financed with dirty money.

They made The Wolf of Wall Street a movie about criminals spending money in

ridiculously lavish ways. Perfectly fitting that that movie was financed by

fraudsters about fraudsters.

The story of Jolo begins in the tiny Malaysian island of Penang, a former

British colony.

His family background is steeped in mystery.

What is known is that Jolo's family is part of the ethnic Chinese minority.

And his father owned a garment factory that provides cheap clothes to the

States. Jolo will later tell people he's the scion of a very rich family.

Whether that's true or whether they are merely well -off, it's clear there's

enough money to get Jolo out of Penang.

That was successful enough to send Jolo away to a fancy British boarding school,

Harrow, outside London.

Fancy is an understatement.

Harrow is ancient.

Shakespeare was a young lad when it was founded.

Harrow alumni include legendary world leaders, the first prime minister of

India, Jawaharlal Nehru, King Hussein of Jordan, and Sir Winston

Churchill.

Jolo doesn't squander the opportunity to connect with the crazy, rich, and

fabulously well -connected. In fact, one of the friendships he forges at Harrow

is with Riza Aziz, a fellow Malaysian who eventually gets a shout -out from

at the Golden Globes.

He's the stepson of Najib Razak, who at the time, I believe, was the Minister of

Defense.

After graduating from Harrow, Jolo moved to the United States and the University

of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

Once again, he makes connections to wealthy and even royal families from

Arabia, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi.

He was surrounded by people who were much, much richer than him. He even told

some people that he was a prince in Malaysia.

While still enrolled in college, Lowe makes a name for himself as an alleged

financial wizard.

He started an investment fund while he was at Wharton.

And that was making investments on behalf of some wealthy families he knew

the Middle East and around the world at that time. The company's name is the

Winton Group, where investors, and more importantly, Joe Lowe, can win tons of

money. He's very interested in using his social cachet and his social

connections to get access to a lot of money to make investments.

And in a sign of things to come, Lowe is known for throwing ridiculous parties.

For his 20th birthday, he rents out a club in Philadelphia, running up a $40

,000 tab and becoming known as the Asian Great Gatsby.

The famous party he threw at.

The University of Pennsylvania, he actually dissed the club owners. He

them that he had the money, and then when it came to pay the bill, he said he

didn't have it, and he ended up paying a lot less.

The youthful transgressions are written off, but the connections abide.

After graduating from Wharton, he helped the Kuwait Finance House...

The world's first Sharia -compliant bank purchased an $87 million luxury high

-rise unit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2006.

He was coming across to them as this sort of investing prodigy just because

the way he was able to talk and sell himself.

While Jho Low knows how to talk, money speaks even louder.

Next on American Greed.

See how the mild -mannered Malaysian uses stolen money to realize his

and burnish his gold -plated reputation.

In New York, a mystery man has arrived on the club scene, and the paparazzi

taken note.

The New York Post, running a picture of Jolo with Usher, lays on the snark.

His chubby, bespectacled appearance hardly meets the image of a wealthy

gadabout. Jolo appeared from nowhere.

Like, literally, everybody was talking about this guy because...

He was spending between $300 ,000 and $500 ,000 a night in New York.

Selma Fonseca is a photojournalist who covers New York City nightlife.

So, obviously, all the promoters and the nightclub owners wanted him to come to

their places because, I mean, he was spending a lot of money.

So the clubs he liked were Avenue, the Pink Elephant.

He would go to Tao.

And when he came in, he would take over the whole club.

He always had a table right in the middle of everything.

He was kind of a shy guy.

His thing was to buy Cristal champagne.

He always had tons of bottles.

It would start off with like, you know, 10 bottles of Cristal. By the end of the

night, everybody in the entire club.

was drinking their own bottle of champagne or something or another bought

Jolo. A magnum of Louis Rotor of Cristal retails for $700 per bottle, but at

clubs it can cost $4 ,000.

One night, Jolo runs into Lindsay Lohan and surprises her with a gift.

Somebody told him that it was Lindsay Lohan's 23rd birthday, and so he bought

bottles of Cristal.

But one of Jolo's favorite celebrities to party with is Paris Hilton.

Reporter Bradley Hope learns that Jolo is infatuated with the heiress and

watches her movie House of Wax obsessively.

I think he had a sort of fixation with Paris Hilton.

My understanding is that he became very interested in Paris Hilton in college

and had a crush on her.

So when he had the means, he then basically bought access to her.

He and Paris frolic on his yacht, gamble in Las Vegas, and go clubbing in the

world's most exclusive spots.

Bradley Hope says it's not uncommon for Hilton to be paid in the six figures for

each appearance with Lowe.

She would either be getting paid directly in cash or, you know, getting

spend in whatever she wants at the club or, you know, when he would go gambling

with people like Paris Hilton, he would actually give them chips, like $100 ,000

of chips, and they could go play and keep the profit.

Selma Fonseca shot this film.

Never before seen on American TV, a Paris Angolo in action in Saint -Tropez.

Paris loves to have fun, so she was dancing and, you know, getting the

bringing champagne.

He's in the south of France, surrounded by all of, you know, to be honest, the

world's richest people, and he's just showing off.

He would go on the microphone. He would say something like, for the waiters to

bring a bottle for every person that was inside of the club.

So they would bring 100 bottles, you know, and then give it to everybody.

What's interesting about Jolo is that he was an awkward person.

And I think this was his way to buy in.

Using his wealth and status, Joe Lowe is able to buy many things.

Over a span of two years, the feds say Lowe spent $200 million on gifts and

jewelry for his friends and fellow partiers.

Joe Lowe loved to purchase gifts for women. He would purchase Bergen bags or

Cartier or Rolex watches, and he would just give them away to models and other

women he was hanging around with. Joe sometimes.

Just had a box full of Rolex that he would gift people.

So he'd have things, you know, thanks for coming, you know, here's your Rolex.

He even dates Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr and lavishes her with $8

million in diamonds.

They started this kind of slightly odd romance, but it mostly involved

lavish gifts.

He bought her diamonds, heart -shaped diamonds.

They also traveled around the world together on his private jet, and

gave her a translucent piano in her house in California.

But the relationship doesn't even last a year.

C 'est la vie.

While at Wharton, Jolo was called the Asian Great Gatsby.

And just like in the novel, most of the revelers at his bashes have no idea

about the source of their host's wealth.

He would always purposefully kind of feed misinformation that made him sound

more attractive.

He had told my friend...

that his parents owned the Petronas building, which at the time was the

building in the world. He had told people he was with royalty. There were

rumors that he was an arms dealer.

The New York Post notes, speculation is brewing over where Lowe is getting his

money from.

One inside observer said, nobody spends their own money like that. It's just

weird. It gets even weirder.

For most people, a 31st birthday isn't anything special.

But most people aren't Joe Lowe.

For me, this party is really the biggest, most grandest party of all.

Essentially, they took over this piece of land on the Las Vegas Strip, and in

the center of it was the party that had the biggest concentration of celebrities

and music performers, aside from the office.

They created a kind of...

and they filled it with circus acts with, I heard there were caged tigers.

There was people on stilts going around. There was, you know, an ice bar.

There was performances on stage, fireworks.

There was Psy with the rendition of Gangnam Style.

There was people like Kanye West. At one point, the rapper Q -Tip was on stage,

and Leonardo DiCaprio, who was a bit inebriated, jumped on stage and joined

in the rap.

From brilliant actors to Kim Kardashian, Jolo's 31st is packed

with A -listers.

But the real highlight of the night is when it's time to sing to the birthday

boy. It's another adolescent fantasy come true.

A giant birthday cake was wheeled out to the middle of the stage, and out popped

Britney Spears, who did a rendition of Happy Birthday to Jolo.

But one man at the party is nearly invisible amid all the glitter and glam.

He's a relative unknown Goldman Sachs executive named Tim Leisner, who runs

Asia Desk. Could this Goldman connection be a clue about the source of Jolo's

outrageous fortune?

Next on American Greed, how authorities say Jolo pulled off one of the biggest

thefts of all time.

Most people don't think they're ever going to get caught, right? And if you

at Jolo, who's on his side? It's the prime minister of Malaysia.

So who's going to call him out?

Seemingly overnight.

Jolo graduates from Wharton to being a financial power player and international

man of mystery.

Does he owe it all to business acumen and hard work?

Not quite.

In fact, it's possible to pinpoint the exact moment his lucky number comes up.

In April 2009, Najib Razak wins a national election and becomes Malaysia's

prime minister.

Razak is the stepfather of Jho Low's old London school pal, Reza Aziz.

Jho Low immediately makes his move.

He was sort of entranced by people who had things he didn't have. So in this

case, it was political power.

Jolo understood the extreme importance of maintaining a strong relationship

Prime Minister Najib and his family.

During his time studying international finance, federal authorities say Jolo

becomes fascinated with sovereign wealth funds.

One of the best known is Saudi Arabia's, which controls a mind -bending $500

billion worth of assets with the goal of investing for the good of the country.

Jho Low now has an audience with Malaysia's prime minister, and he

on the idea that Malaysia should jump in the sovereign wealth pool.

Jho Low came up with this idea at some point that

developing a sovereign wealth fund is the way to tap into extreme

amounts of money and power.

But he learned that through...

people that he was introduced to in places like the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

It was supposed to be like the benevolent fund for the country of

where money would get pulled in and generate funds that would help the

Malaysia. The new sovereign wealth fund is named One Malaysia Development

Berhad, or 1MDB.

But unlike Jho Low's Middle Eastern model, Malaysia is at a disadvantage in

starting its new fund.

In places like Saudi Arabia...

Those sovereign wealth funds are funded mostly through profits from the oil

industry. But in Malaysia, they didn't have the billions of dollars needed for

sovereign wealth fund. They were going to go borrow it. They were going to

acquire debt, essentially, to try to then make those investments.

Borrowing money means Malaysia's taxpayers are on the hook for the fund.

Prime Minister Najib Razak is the fund chairman.

Jolo never holds an official title, but is instead considered a consultant.

Jolo purposely did not have an official role in 1MDB. He stayed behind the

scenes as sort of an advisor.

In reality, he was running the entire fund in every which way. It was all his

people he put into every position, but they treated him as if he was the

absolute CEO of the fund.

One of the first projects they invest in is a joint venture with the Saudi oil

extraction company.

One MDB chips in $1 billion in Malaysian state funds for the project.

But according to bank records, much of the cash is rerouted to a shell company

secretly held by Jho Low.

Authorities say insiders are paid off to help Low pull off the transaction.

The first major theft from 1MDB is really just the kind of crazy brazen

When it came to 1MDB was about to send the money, there were some changes done

on the paperwork because obviously Jolo was controlling 1MDB. He could make

these changes.

And so with a simple signature from 1MDB, he suddenly had $700 million in

own account.

In the following years, Jolo and 1MDB hook up with the American financial

Goldman Sachs. whose market capitalization is $134 billion.

Remember, the context is these sovereign wealth deals were happening not that

long after the financial crisis in the U .S., and a lot of banks, including

Goldman, were really looking internationally as a new source of big

Tim Leisner is Goldman's point man with 1MDB.

Remember, he's a guest at Jolo's 31st birthday bash in Las Vegas.

Leissner is a rising star at the firm, known for working hard and partying even

harder. He dates an eventually married reality TV star and former model Kimora

Lee Simmons.

Access to the power structure of a place like Malaysia, knowing that they're in

the process of building a sovereign wealth fund out, became an extremely

enticing business opportunity for...

Tim Leisner and the Asia desk of Goldman Sachs.

But according to investigators, Leisner has been warned about not doing business

with Jolo.

Anti -money laundering officers at Goldman Sachs have questions about how

makes his money.

Timothy Leisner tried on multiple occasions.

to help Jolo get a private banking account in Goldman Sachs. And the bank's

compliance department in private banking said, we don't feel comfortable with

his source of funds.

Within Goldman Sachs, the word, the name Jolo was considered a problem.

But the feds say Leissner wants to do a deal with his friend. So he simply lies

to his bosses at Goldman Sachs and the internal investigation is dropped.

You know, they were given assurances that Jolo wasn't.

involved in the 1MDB deal.

Beginning in 2012, Goldman Sachs helps the fund organize three separate bond

offerings. They ultimately raise $6 .5 billion for 1MDB.

For their efforts, Goldman Sachs collects $600 million in fees.

And Tim Leisner is put on a pedestal.

Timothy Leissner, his career really took off because of this work that he did in

Malaysia. One senior official said, you know, everyone should do more like Tim

Leissner's doing. You know, this is the kind of work we want to be pursuing

around the world.

$6 .5 billion would go a long way in Malaysia.

The country is newly industrialized but still developing.

The per capita income in Malaysia is $10 ,000 a year. When you go to Malaysia,

you clearly see signs of poverty, but you also see signs of real economic

development. But once again, the bulk of the money never makes it to Malaysia's

coffers. Within days of getting the proceeds of these bond offerings, the

accounts showed that hundreds of millions of dollars were being sent.

to a shell company account held in Swiss Bank.

And then from there, if you follow the financial tracing further, the funds

would then flow to other shell companies controlled by Jolo.

Next on American Greed, Jolo uses his abundant cash to invest in the United

States. He bought lavish.

pieces of property in places like New York City and Beverly Hills. He

extremely expensive, rare pieces of art.

Despite his world -class skills at partying, Joe Lowe has more important

endeavors when he arrives in the United States.

In 2010, he hangs out a shingle called Genwell Capital.

According to its website, the firm cultivates lifelong partnerships with

significant investors such as leading sovereign wealth funds.

So in places like New York, there's an entire industry devoted to...

catering to high net worth people, and Jho Low plugged himself into that

industry. But the feds say Jho Low's real business is laundering all the

he looted from Malaysia.

Low uses shell companies to purchase a $24 million unit in Manhattan's Park

Laurel building, a loft in Soho for nearly $14 million, a

$140 million stake in the Park Lane Hotel.

and a $30 million penthouse in the exclusive Time Warner Center.

Before Joe Lowe, Jay -Z, and Beyonce lived there.

So, you know, this place had a lot of cachet. It was flashy, it was luxurious.

In 2012, he partners with Sony Music and others to purchase EMI Music Publishing

for $2 .2 billion.

The business contains the song catalog of Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Bob

and countless others.

Genwell Capital and Jolo's contribution is $106 million.

These are major financial transactions.

As Jolo's reputation grows, so does his celebrity circle.

He gets friendly with musical artists like Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, Swiss

and Alicia Keys.

Tease even features in a promotional video for Genwell Capital.

If we're not supporting the artistic community, you know, I don't think we'll

able to encourage that bravery and boldness that really creates the

classic.

Jolo becomes a major player in the New York art world.

He buys works by Warhol, Basquiat, Van Gogh.

And Picasso.

So he's not the most sophisticated art buyer. He was in a gallery and they

this is a Monet. And he said, oh, is that guy still alive?

But Jolo isn't just in an empire state of mind.

In Beverly Hills, he buys the Viceroy Hotel for $40 million.

And a $39 million house in the hills that doubles as his own personal fantasy

island.

But he also bought a home that was originally belonged to Ricardo Montalban

Hollywood.

But to really make it in L .A., you ought to be in pictures.

In 2011, Joe Lowe invests in the upstart film studio Red Granite.

The production company is co -founded by his old school buddy, Riza Aziz. It

kind of ticked multiple boxes for Jolo to invest in Red Granite.

It curried favor with Prime Minister Najib and the family by providing

an opportunity for Riza Aziz to entrench himself into the Hollywood

scene. Red Granite produces a handful of films.

including the sequel to the Jim Carrey smash, Dumb and Dumber. But their

crowning achievement is the adaptation of the raunchy memoir of Jordan Belfort.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been trying to make the film for years.

The studios were passing on The Wolf of Wall Street because they thought it was

just too excessive. The project wasn't moving forward. They couldn't find the

money to make it.

DiCaprio finally sees his dreams realized when he meets the Red Granite

their mysterious benefactor.

When Jolo heard the pitch with RZA, they said, look, we'll finance this.

It's a story as old as Hollywood.

Filmmakers happy to partner with dumb money.

Outsiders with deep pockets and dreams of seeing their name in the credits.

When people show up on the scene and start throwing tens of millions of

around, it certainly didn't take a seasoned investigator to understand that

there was something wrong.

Next on American Greed, who says money can't buy happiness?

Joe Lowe's abundant cash appears to buy himself a best new bud.

One gift that stands out that he gave Leonardo DiCaprio was an Oscar that was

given to Marlon Brando.

Want more greed?

Follow us on Instagram, connect on Facebook, and listen to the American

podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be right back.

To celebrate the founding of Red Granite and to announce their intention to make

The Wolf of Wall Street, Jolo and his buddies throw a bash at the Cannes Film

Festival in 2011.

The Cannes party is when Hollywood met Red Granite. They weren't really meeting

Joe Lowe, though. He wasn't such a big presence at that party.

It was those celebrities.

Kanye West and Jamie Foxx perform on stage.

Of course, the film's star, Leonardo DiCaprio, is there.

The real -life wolf, Jordan Belfort, is also in attendance and has an

interesting take.

Remember the anonymous club goer who told the New York Post, nobody spends

own money like that, it's just weird.

Turns out, the convicted felon, Belfort, has the exact same thought.

Jordan Belfort was watching this party and thinking it was a red flag for him.

You know, nobody spends their own money like this.

It had that feeling of stolen money.

It takes a thief.

When it comes time to make the film, Red Granite spares no expense for Leonardo

DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese.

They put up the entirety of the film's $100 million budget, and Jolo becomes a

hero. And that was extremely attractive, because obviously the studio system

asks a lot of hard questions, they say no to things, and they kind of curtail

the creativity of some of these filmmakers.

And here was Red Granite telling them, look, we'll just write a check. One

is that the director of Wolf of Wall Street wanted to crash a real

as opposed to a replica.

But they were able to convince Jolo and Riza Aziz to allow them to crash a real

vintage Lamborghini.

The film debuts in December 2013 and is ultimately a success, making $392

million worldwide.

Scorsese has directed films considered among the greatest of all time, such as

Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, and Goodfellas.

But it's this over -the -top saga of depraved greed that earns more money

any of his other films.

During production, Jolo allegedly becomes close with DiCaprio.

both personally and professionally.

Joe Lowe was going to fund their entire slate.

So every project they wanted to do, if they wanted to do it their own way, he

would be the guy that would fund it.

Leonardo DiCaprio's film company, Appian Way, is based in a building on the

Sunset Strip.

Red Granite's office is in the same building, just one floor away.

They were working together a lot on projects, you know, thinking about

Jolo buys a mansion in Beverly Hills around the corner from DiCaprio's home.

He flatters his new friend by giving him $13 million worth of art, including

works by Picasso, Basquiat and photographer Diane Arbus.

But Jolo's biggest and best gift to Leo is something more personal.

The story goes that when Leonardo DiCaprio didn't win the Oscar for The

Wall Street, Reza Aziz and Jolo were able to, or purchased an Oscar that

Marlon Brando originally won for On the Waterfront and gave it to Leonardo

DiCaprio as a kind of consolation prize.

Next on American Greed, Jolo's reckless spending finally catches up with him.

when he buys his most decadent item yet.

Jolo commissioned the creation of this incredible yacht, which at the time was

the most expensive yacht to ever be built.

In 2014, Joe Lowe attains membership in one of the most exclusive clubs yet when

he purchases a 300 -foot -long super yacht for the reasonable price of $250

million.

It was just about the size of a football field.

The super yacht features a sauna, a helicopter landing pad, and a jacuzzi

entertaining celebrity friends.

It was massive. It was decadent.

It was gaudy. It had everything. This is why people steal money.

But while Jolo lives it up on the high seas, a storm is brewing.

It's currently being investigated by multiple parties.

In February 2015,

Louise Story of the New York Times has one of the first big exposés on Jolo.

For more than a year, she's been investigating the use of LLCs and shell

companies to launder money through luxury condos.

In the Time Warner Center, the mysterious Jho Low is one of the first

featured in her series.

As I talked to bankers in Malaysia, I found out that Jho Low had been an

investor to 1MDB.

So that right there opened a big can of worms.

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Bradley Hope and his colleague Tom Wright have

their own series investigating Jho Low and 1MDB.

So we wrote the first story saying the FBI was investigating Goldman Sachs. And

then we continued to write about things that U .S. investigators were doing. The

Fed's investigation is part of their new initiative to crack down on

international corruption cases.

Joe Lowe's behavior made it crystal clear that the connections to the United

States were extremely strong.

From 2009 to 2015, U .S. authorities say $4 .5 billion of 1MDB

funds were misappropriated in a vast international conspiracy.

In 2016, the U .S. government files a civil forfeiture complaint seeking the

recovery of more than $1 billion in assets bought with stolen money.

Jolo initially resists the government's actions, but eventually gives up.

He didn't necessarily cooperate. He just sort of gave up the fight.

Jolo never made an admission of guilt, but he relinquished about $700 million

assets. The seizures include his real estate holdings in New York and L .A.,

jewelry gifted to Miranda Kerr, and the artworks and Brando Oscar given to

Leonardo DiCaprio.

I will say that the FBI did not necessarily have to hit down any doors,

Leonardo DiCaprio only turned his assets over to the FBI after they were named

in a complaint.

At the time, a spokesperson says DiCaprio accepted the art with the

auctioning it off to raise money for his charity.

And in a first, the U .S. government seizes several films when they crack

on red granite pictures.

The United States cedes the rights to several movies, including The Wolf of

Street, because they were made directly with money stolen from one MDB.

Red Granite settles and pays the U .S. government $60 million.

The company's executives never face any criminal charges.

However, Red Granite co -founder Riza Aziz surrenders $60 million in assets to

the U .S. government.

His partner, Joey McFarlane, surrenders $14 million in cash and assets.

Joe Lowe's celebrity friends also are never charged with any crimes.

American Greed reaches out to Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Miranda Kerr,

Paris Hilton, and others, but receives no response.

There isn't culpability for celebrities if they just want to hang out with bad

guys. It becomes criminal if they know where the money is coming from.

In 2018, U .S. prosecutors filed criminal charges against Goldman Sachs

executive Tim Leisner, alleging that he helped launder 1MDB funds through the U

.S. financial system.

The feds say he also helped bribe government officials with $1 .6 billion

stolen money.

If bribes were paid to government officials in Malaysia, Goldman Sachs has

admitted that their Malaysian subsidiary has paid those bribes in order to

ensure that Goldman Sachs received that business.

Leisner pleads guilty to conspiracy to launder money and violation of the

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

He also agrees to forfeit $43 .7 million.

He awaits sentencing.

Goldman Sachs also agrees to pay a $2 .9 billion penalty for its role in the

scheme. And they paid the largest criminal penalty for an international

corruption case in DOJ history.

In 2018, Jolo is also indicted for conspiring to launder money and

violate the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act.

But he flees the U .S. and avoids arrest.

However, authorities do find his superyacht.

It's anchored off the coast of Bali.

FBI agents and Indonesian authorities seize the vessel, but Jho Low is not on

board.

The superyacht becomes a focal point in the upcoming elections in Malaysia,

where the 1MDB scandal rages.

It was like this ultimate example of the level of corruption here, that this

mega yacht was purchased at a price that could have done so much good for the

people of Malaysia.

In 2018, the scandal tanks Najib Razak's re -election efforts as he suffers a

resounding defeat.

In 2020, the former prime minister is tried and found guilty in Malaysia for

abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Razak is sentenced to 12 years, but has yet to set foot behind bars.

I think one of the things sometimes we hear is that money laundering or foreign

corruption, these are financial crimes with no real victims. Well, there were

victims because all of this money.

That was raised and spent. Now, who's holding the bag for it? It's the

people.

As for Jho Low, he flees Malaysia and is reportedly living in China, living in

the home of a high -ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party.

I think it's safe to say he's in possession of a massive fortune.

You know, a lot of money from 1MDB was never recovered.

Regardless... Jolo's jet -setting days are over.

Aspiring Hollywood filmmakers and crooked international bankers now have

a new sugar daddy.

He will never be able to travel freely around the world. His days of partying

with Leonardo DiCaprio are over.

Essentially, he's in a kind of no -man's land where he has a lot of money and

he's able to move around freely within China, but that's about it. He will be a

fugitive from the United States for the rest of his life.

The United States will never stop looking for him.

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