An unnamed spokesman for Low said the RM15 million three-storey family home was built two decades ago, long before a controversy erupted over 1MDB. Low is a central figure in the 1MDB saga, which involves billions of ringgit alleged to have been diverted and laundered through various bank accounts.
A statement issued through a public relations agency in Sydney, Australia, said Low “was still a teenager” when the property was built and completed around twenty years ago, during the previous government of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
This was more than a decade before 1MDB ever existed, the statement said.
Police confirmed today that the bungalow, in Tanjung Bungah Park in Penang, had been seized on a notice issued by the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Mazlan Mansor, director of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department at federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman, confirmed that anti-money laundering officers had seized the property.
Low’s spokesman took issue with the fact that a seizure notice was left outside the family home, which is held in the name of his mother, Goh Gaik Ewe, 66.
“It is clear that the Mahathir regime’s intent is to score ‘political wins’ by taking aim at Mr Low through whatever means possible, irrespective of the law or basic human rights,” the spokesman said.
The property had never been of interest to any Malaysian government in the previous two decades, the statement said.
“This purported seizure of a property unconnected to any of the allegations is a blatant demonstration of Mahathir’s politicisation of the issues and is yet another example of the regime’s practice of usurping the rule of law, further demonstrating that Mr. Low cannot get a fair trial.”
Malaysia has sought the arrest of Low, whose whereabouts is not known, to aid investigations into allegations of money laundering involving billions of ringgit in 1MDB transactions.
Low’s mother and father, Larry Low Hock Peng, also 66, have been named by Bukit Aman as persons of interest in connection with the 1MDB investigation.