The Malaysian Insight

PARK Lane Hotel in New York may now be sold to an Abu Dhabi state firm after wanted Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho agreed to drop claims to the property in a US forfeiture suit.

Media reports said the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had been trying to seize Low’s stake allegedly paid for with money stolen from the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) investment fund.

The intermediary companies that hold Low’s interest in the hotel said yesterday in a filing in federal court in Los Angeles that they will withdraw their claims to facilitate the sale to Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Mubadala Investment Co and other investors, a spokesman for Low said in a statement. 

“By seeking to withdraw their claims to the Park Lane Hotel, it is understood and agreed by the US government that the claimants have made no admission of wrongdoing or liability,” said the statement issued by Benjamin Haslem from the Sydney-based Wells Haslem Mayhew Strategic Public Affairs.

Bloomberg reported today that the luxury hotel on 36 Central Park South is among the assets the US prosecutors allege that Low, also known as Jho Low, and his accomplices acquired with billions of dollars siphoned off 1MDB. 

Low bought the hotel in 2013 in a joint venture with New York real estate developer Witkoff Group for about US$654 million (RM2.7 billion). His initial share in the property was 85%. 

Mubadala paid the businessman US$135 million in late 2013 for a stake in the hotel.

The sale of the hotel will follow Sony Corp’s acquisition of Low’s stake in EMI Music Publishing, which was part of a Mubadala-led investor group that owned 60% of the company. 

Low’s proceeds from that sale, which closed Wednesday, are held by the US pending the outcome of the forfeiture litigation, Bloomberg reported.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles also agreed with Low last month to auction his Bombardier private jet parked in Singapore with the US holding on to the proceeds until the suit to forfeit the asset is esolved. 

An earlier effort by the US to sell Low’s US$250 million super yacht Equanimity at auction fell through in August when authorities in Indonesia, which seized the vessel at the request of the US, handed over the yacht to Malaysia. 

Malaysia has put up the yacht for sale and has parked it in Langkawi, the resort island that returned nonagenarian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to parliament in the May 9 polls that routed 1MDB founder Najib Razak from power.

US prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Low this month with conspiring with a Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB. 

Low, whose whereabouts are unknown, has denied the allegations.

In the statement today, the spokesman said, “Mr Low looks forward to the continuing cooperation between the owners of these and other assets and the US government in ensuring that the value of such assets are maintained and that the rule of law is properly followed.” – November 17, 2018.