The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has been trying to seize Jho Low’s stake because he allegedly bought it with money stolen from state-owned investment fund 1MDB. The intermediary companies that hold Jho Low’s interest in the property said in a filing Friday in federal court in Los Angeles that they would withdraw their claims.
This will pave the way for an expedited sale of the hotel to Mubadala and other investors, a spokesman for Jho Low said in a statement. The DoJ has agreed that dropping the claims is no admission of wrongdoing or liability, according to the statement.
The luxury hotel on 36 Central Park South is among the assets the US prosecutors allege that Jho Low and his accomplices acquired with billions of dollars syphoned from 1MDB. Jho Low bought the hotel in 2013 in a joint venture with New York real estate developer Witkoff Group for about US$654 million. Jho Low’s share was initially 85% of the property. Mubadala paid him US$135 million in late 2013 for a stake in the hotel.
The sale of the hotel would 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. Jho Low’s proceeds from that sale, which closed Wednesday, are held by the US pending the outcome of the forfeiture litigation.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles also agreed with Jho Low last month to auction his Bombardier private jet with the US holding on to the proceeds until the forfeiture lawsuit against that asset has been resolved. An earlier effort by the US to sell Jho Low’s US$250 million super yacht at auction fell through in August when Indonesia, where it had been seized at the request of the US, handed the yacht to Malaysia.
US prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Jho Low this month with conspiring with a Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB. Low, who is believed to be in China, has denied the allegations.