Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
In this second of two special episodes of True Criminals, journalists Helen Fospero and Martin Brunt are joined once again by investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, whose reporting helped expose Malaysia’s extraordinary 1MDB scandal and the disappearance of billions of dollars from a state investment fund.
With former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak behind bars, the investigation turns to the mysterious financier Jho Low, the fugitive businessman at the centre of the scandal, whose extravagant spending brought him into the orbit of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Rewcastle Brown reveals how money stolen from 1MDB helped finance The Wolf of Wall Street, and how Low showered celebrities with extraordinary gifts, including a Picasso painting for Leonardo DiCaprio and millions of dollars’ worth of jewellery for supermodel Miranda Kerr. From champagne-fuelled parties in Las Vegas to private jets, priceless artwork and a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar superyacht, she describes a world of almost unimaginable excess – and the public money that helped pay for it.
But Low’s disappearance following the first major 1MDB exposé in February 2015 would lead Rewcastle Brown towards an even more extraordinary story.
In her latest investigation, detailed in her new book, The China Contract, she uncovers evidence of an alleged international cover-up involving Chinese state-linked companies, inflated infrastructure contracts and billions of dollars in secret financial transactions, designed, she alleges, to plug the enormous financial hole left by the 1MDB scandal.
She explains how a mysterious leaked document first alerted her to an alleged $8bn scheme involving China's Belt and Road Initiative, and how a whistleblower who escaped from Kuwait with crucial documents helped her piece together the money trail.
Rewcastle Brown also discusses her belief that Jho Low is hiding in China, the reported attempts to secure pardons in Malaysia and the United States, and her continuing efforts to trace billions she believes remain hidden within the international banking system.
From Hollywood and Macau to China, Kuwait and London's financial institutions, this is a remarkable account of how corruption can cross borders, implicate powerful institutions and evade justice long after the original crime has been exposed.
And at the heart of it all is a devastating question: what could those billions have done for the ordinary people of Malaysia, particularly the indigenous communities of Borneo, whose struggle first inspired Rewcastle Brown’s investigation?
As she tells Helen and Martin, the story is far from over. There is still missing money to trace, powerful institutions to scrutinise and new evidence to uncover.
Clare Rewcastle Brown’s latest book, The China Contract: The Inside Story of the World's Biggest Financial Scandal … and How It Was Covered Up, continues her investigation into the 1MDB affair.
Discover more about his career and the cases he’s covered by reading his book, No One Got Cracked Over the Head for No Reason: Dispatches from a Crime Reporter, available here:
https://amzn.eu/d/g1WisSY
CONNECT WITH HELEN FOSPERO
Follow Helen on Instagram at @helenfospero and check out her podcast, The Convex Conversation, here:
