Putrajaya Denies Jho Low Entered Malaysia via Chinese Convoy

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — The Ministry of Finance has strongly refuted sensationalized allegations that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, managed to secretly cross into Malaysian territory last year under the cover of a foreign diplomatic delegation from China.

The purported infiltration was reportedly aimed at initiating backdoor settlement negotiations regarding his central role in the multi-billion dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign fund scandal.

Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong flatly dismissed the claims during a high-stakes Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat today. The matter was aggressively brought to the floor via a supplementary inquiry by Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (MUDA-Muar), who pressed the government to respond to international media leaks indicating that the global fugitive had successfully outmaneuvered domestic border enforcement agencies.

“I deny the allegation,” Liew replied briefly to the lower house, shutting down further legislative speculation.

Earlier, Syed Saddiq cited several prominent investigative reports alleging that Jho Low had personally embedded himself within an official Chinese state delegation visiting Kuala Lumpur late last year. According to those reports, the mastermind behind the sovereign fund’s collapse attended a secret meeting directly tied to iron out a prospective asset-repayment deal involving the Ministry of Finance.

Shifting the legislative spotlight back to the country’s ongoing financial restitution tracks, Liew was responding to an initial query tabled by Chong Chieng Jen (PH-Stampin) regarding the definitive state of 1MDB’s remaining liability backlog and global asset recovery campaigns.

The Deputy Minister assured the house that the MADANI administration is scaling up concurrent civil and criminal litigation tracks targeting primary perpetrators, including former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Liew highlighted that the High Court had, on December 26, 2025, sentenced Najib to 15 years in prison and handed down a staggering RM11.38 billion fine after finding him guilty on 25 combined counts of money laundering and abuse of power.

Furthermore, Liew detailed that federal lawyers are aggressively pushing an active US$380 million (approximately RM1.56 billion) civil litigation suit against Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, to claw back state funds allegedly diverted to procure vast collections of premium designer handbags and luxury jewelry.

“And there are also criminal and civil proceedings against Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the 1MDB misappropriation, involving a civil claim worth US$3.78 billion (about RM15.4 billion),” Liew noted.

Quantifying the macro-economic toll, Liew stated that the 1MDB fallout had inflicted deep structural damage across four key indices: immediate financial depletion, missed opportunity costs, unrecoverable capital pools, and systemic damage to Malaysia’s sovereign reputation on the global stage.

Providing a rigorous fiscal tally, the Deputy Minister revealed that as of June 30, the government has already shelled out RM42.5 billion out of national coffers to settle immediate 1MDB-linked defaults, covering direct principal amounts, cumulative interest cycles, operational overheads, and high-level international legal fees.

The Treasury remains legally responsible for an additional RM8.9 billion under the state-guaranteed Sukuk Islamic Medium Term Notes set to fully mature in 2039, a balance sheet comprising RM5 billion in baseline principal and RM3.9 billion in structural interest.

“This means the government’s total past and future financial exposure arising from 1MDB amounts to RM51.4 billion,” Liew calculated.

The state has successfully retrieved RM31.3 billion through global asset recovery programs to date. Liew concluded that unless international legal teams successfully track down and freeze additional hidden assets, the remaining RM20.1 billion deficit will ultimately be absorbed as a net liability borne entirely by Malaysian taxpayers.

-NMT