'Billion Dollar Whale' co-author was almost arrested while pursuing 1MDB story

It was in November 2015 that Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Bradley Hope received alarming news from a person identified only as “Malaysia Source”: his colleague Tom Wright, the newspaper’s Asia Economics Editor, was about to be arrested.

“Malaysia Source was somebody that was involved in the (1MDB) scheme, so it wasn’t really a warning, it was a threat,” recalled Wright, who was one of the first reporters to uncover the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal in the same year.

“So I left in the country in a bit of a rush, over the border to Singapore, because we decided that was the safer way to go.” Wright only returned to Malaysia after the historic General Election of 9 May 2018 that unseated the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Wright, 43, is in town to promote his book Billion Dollar Whale, which launched in Singapore on Wednesday in an event attended by more than 150 people. Co-authored by Wright and Hope, the book tells the story of Malaysian financier Jho Low, 36, and his key role in the scandal.

Up to US$6 billion was allegedly siphoned from Malaysia’s state coffers through the sovereign wealth fund founded in 2009. Salacious details have emerged of the sprawling scandal linking A-list Hollywood celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, powerful figures in the Middle East, bankers in Singapore and the man allegedly at the heart of the scandal: former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The WSJ duo travelled to as far as London, Hong Kong and Curacao in the Caribbean to conduct research for their book, getting hold of reams of email correspondences, documents and WhatsApp messages, including 1MDB board minutes and the then-classified Auditor-General’s report on 1MDB.

They also spoke to more than 100 sources for their book, including “Malaysia Source”, senior government officials, Hollywood figures and even Playboy Playmates. Wright noted, “There were models who had partied with (Low). This Canadian-Asian model (had) been given tens of thousands of dollars in jewellery.”

He added, “Low wasn’t a bagman, he was the puppet master.”

Like a Hollywood blockbuster

Speaking to Yahoo News Singapore at PARKROYAL on Pickering on Thursday (27 September), the Hong Kong-based media veteran said that he and Hope quickly realised in 2015 that a single article would be insufficient to tell the story of Low and 1MDB.

“We realised we had this incredible character on our hands: a guy who was able to mesmerise everyone he came across and make people believe that he could make their dreams come true. And that’s when we realised we had an amazing story,” said Wright.

“Over and over again, he’s telling Leonardo DiCaprio, I’ll make you a more powerful actor, a more powerful producer. He’s telling (Australian actress) Miranda Kerr, I’ll IPO your skincare line.”

Low allegedly used 1MDB monies to help finance DiCaprio’s movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”, which gained a slew of Oscar nominations. Both DiCaprio and Kerr have been implicated in a US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into 1MDB, handing over expensive gifts of jewellery and art they had received from Low to the authorities.

The scandal has all the gripping ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster and not surprising, movie studios have come knocking. Wright said a movie deal is expected to be announced soon.

How was this possible?

Over in Singapore, the likes of Yvonne Seah, Yeo Jiawei and Yak Yew Chee, all former employees of Swiss bank BSI, have been jailed in relation to the 1MDB saga. Its former CEO Hanspeter Brunner has also been under investigation since 2016.

Asked how much Singapore authorities might have known of the scandal before it broke, Wright was uncertain. But he noted, “Singapore has been fairly proactive in its investigations of 1MDB. It’s, until today, the only jurisdiction anywhere around the world, that has sentenced people to jail in connection with the scandal.”

Singapore agencies are also working with their Malaysian counterparts to retrieve 1MDB funds. Earlier this month, a Singapore court ordered the return of US$11 million to Malaysia.

As for Najib, he is alleged by the US DOJ to have pocketed some US$680 million in misappropriated funds from 1MDB, charges which he denies. Najib has been charged by a Malaysian court with money-laundering, while his wife Rosmah Mansor was also questioned by the anti-graft agency.

While Jho Low has been fingered by Wright and other journalists as the mastermind of the 1MDB scandal, many have asked: how could one man have done all this? In response, Wright said that much of this was down to “the dysfunction of the Malaysian system”.

“Here you had a 27-year-old university graduate with no experience in the world, no real life work experience, running a sovereign wealth fund from behind the scenes. It’s insane. None of what Jho Low did could have happened without the cover of Najib Razak, and that speaks of the dysfunction of the Malaysian political system.”

But Wright added that Low was also enabled by the global financial system. “He could have been stopped at many different points if compliance officers, auditors and lawyers had done their jobs. So you cannot lay the blame for this only at the door of Malaysia.”

Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World ($29.96) is available in major bookstores now.

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