Jho Low Mounted Secret Lobbying Campaign Over 1MDB Probe, U.S. Says
David Yaffe-Bellany, David Voreacos, and Patricia Hurtado, 11 June 2021
A Malaysian financier and a former member of hiphop trio the Fugees were accused in a new indictment of illegally lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation tied to the 1MDB global bribery scandal and remove a Chinese dissident from the U.S.
A federal grand jury on Thursday returned a superseding indictment against Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, and Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, according to a Justice Department statement Friday.
Low and Michel’s aim was to influence then-President Donald Trump‘s Justice Department to abandon the probe of Low and others and extradite a wealthy Chinese exile who has criticized the government in Beijing. That exile has not been identified by the Justice Department, but a person familiar with the matter has said it is Guo Wengui.
Both Low and Michel were charged with money-laundering conspiracy, while Michel was also accused of witness tampering and conspiring to make false statements to banks.
