(Bloomberg) -- Low Taek Jho, the alleged mastermind of the looting of Malaysia’s 1MDB fund, was ordered to forfeit a trio of “flawless” diamonds he bought for his mother that were from a jeweler who has designed for celebrities like Beyonce and Adele.
The US Justice Department said in a statement it will recover assets worth almost $85 million in a forfeiture order issued Monday by a Los Angeles federal judge. That will bring the government’s total recovery from the international money laundering, embezzlement and bribery scheme to more than $1.4 billion.
The order covers the jewelry as well as other assets tied to the fugitive Malaysian financier known as Jho Low and his family, including a pen-and-ink drawing by Vincent van Gogh, a Claude Monet painting of a Venetian sunset and more than $27.3 million held in a UBS Group AG account. The US said it’s also taking possession of a Pablo Picasso artwork bought by a former 1MDB lawyer, as well as $25,000 she held in a Swiss bank account.
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US District Judge Dale Fischer described the 7.35-carat diamond ring and matching diamond earrings both greater than 3 carats as a gift from Low to his mother Evelyn and ruled that the jewels were “criminal proceeds” of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. fraud.
The three pieces were created by prestigious New York-based designer Lorraine Schwartz, who US prosecutors said also made a $23 million necklace — with a pink diamond big enough to be a paperweight — and personally delivered it to Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, according to court testimony in the US.
Low remains a fugitive from prosecution by both US and Malaysian authorities. He was charged along with former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng, who was convicted at trial in New York in 2022.
Schwartz’s jewelry figured prominently in Ng’s trial. While the jury didn’t get to see some of the treasures bought with money the US says was looted in the scandal, the jurors did review receipts from the purchase of the necklace. Witnesses testified that Schwartz delivered the necklace to Rosmah while she was staying aboard a yacht with her son off the coast of Monaco. She later bought $1.3 million more in jewelry from Schwartz, according to court testimony.
Rosmah and Razak were both sentenced to prison following corruption convictions in Malaysia. She is appealing.
Jasmine Loo, the former general counsel for 1MDB, reached an agreement with the Justice Department to give up claims to a Picasso pencil sketch drawing titled “Trois Femmes Nues et Buste d’Homme,” which she purchased for about $1.4 million, according to the statement. The agreement doesn’t release any potential criminal claims against Loo, the department said.
Loo was charged by Malaysian authorities and testified against Razak this year.
(Updates with forfeiture of Monet and van Gogh artwork in third paragraph.)
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