She was interested in the ongoing, widespread deforestation there and its effect on the native people of the region. This fund, 1MDB, was financed with government money, and investment banks helped raise another $10 billion for it.Īs my colleague wrote in Fraud Magazine when the ACFE honored investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown for her role in shining a light on the corruption more than 10 years ago, “Brown’s real story doesn’t fully begin until 2005 when she returned to her birthplace of Sarawak in Malaysia. While there, he discovered the story behind “Billion Dollar Whale.” A businessman from Malaysia, Low used his extensive social connections to convince former Prime Minister Najib to create an investment fund. Most recently, Wright was the Wall Street Journal’s Asia economics editor. Wright is an investigative journalist and the co-author of “Billion Dollar Whale,” the true story of a Wharton University graduate, Low, who orchestrated one of the world’s largest financial heists - and used the proceeds to build a Hollywood empire.

And what he really wanted to do with the money is party with Paris Hilton.” He had more liquid cash than any fraudster has ever had. “Jho Low didn’t have to bother with finding investors he just stole the money.

He lost $18 billion in investor money, but that scandal took 40 years,” Wright said to a group of more than 250 anti-fraud professionals. Bernie Madoff went to jail in 2008 when his pyramid scheme collapsed. “I always say that Jho Low is one of the most successful fraudsters ever. The actual central figure of the scandal who Wright spoke about and based his New York Times best-selling book on is Jho Low. But, Hilton’s name did come up several times while Wright recounted the events that led to the ousting of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and the exposure of a billion-dollar corruption scheme known as 1MDB. Best-selling author Tom Wright’s address at the 2019 ACFE Fraud Conference Asia-Pacific began and ended with one central figure in the 1MDB corruption scandal: Paris Hilton.

Tom wright author billion dollar whale