(Bloomberg) -- The US Justice Department reached a deal with fugitive Low Taek Jho and his family to get back more than $100 million of assets including artworks by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol, the latest asset recovery linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal in Malaysia.

The department announced the agreement on Wednesday with the fugitive, better known as Jho Low, unnamed members of of his family and various trusts to resolve two civil forfeiture cases brought against assets purchased using funds allegedly from the 1Malaysia Development Fund.

“Under the agreement, the department will coordinate with foreign partners to facilitate the liquidation and return of these assets to Malaysia,” the DOJ said in a statement. Before this settlement, the US had helped return over $1.4 billion in assets associated with the $4.5 billion money laundering and bribery scheme. 

Low has repeatedly declared his innocence in the past. The 1MDB scandal, which also dragged in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hollywood, created political upheaval in Malaysia with former Prime Minister Najib Razak losing elections in 2018. Najib was eventually sentenced to jail for crimes related to the fund. 

Under the latest agreements with the US, Low agreed to return a luxury apartment in Paris and artwork in Switzerland by Warhol and Monet, which he bought for about $35 million. The other involves returning to Malaysia about $67 million in property and cash in bank accounts in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Singapore. 

In 2020, Low struck a deal with US prosecutors to recoup almost $700 million of assets, including a Beverly Hills hotel and real estate in New York and London. That was in addition to $260 million of assets, including a $126 million super yacht, seized earlier on Malaysia’s behalf.

Low still faces charges in New York for conspiring to launder billions of dollars taken from 1MDB and for paying bribes to various Malaysian and UAE officials. He also faces a case in a District of Columbia court for making and concealing foreign campaign contributions to the US presidential elections in 2012. 

Malaysian authorities have been trying, with no success, to track and repatriate Low for years. He was spotted last year in Macau.

Low was charged in absentia in 2018 by a Malaysian court with eight counts of money laundering and issued a warrant of arrest for his role in 1MDB. A separate Malaysian court said in 2020 that he played a key role in transferring 42 million ringgit ($8.9 million) from a former 1MDB unit to Najib’s accounts. Najib has claimed innocence, and got his prison sentence halved under a royal pardon earlier this year. 

(Updates with details of deal)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.