US DoJ makes deal with Jasmine Loo to get back RM8.4m worth of Picasso artwork, Swiss funds linked to 1MDB

• In the latest effort to help Malaysia get back stolen 1MDB money, US Department of Justice hits a deal to recover US$1.8m worth of assets under former 1MDB lawyer Jasmine Loo’s control.

• The US$1.8m assets are a Picasso artwork (bought using US$1.3 million) and money in a Swiss account (over US$430,000), based on previous court documents.

• The US$1.8 million Loo assets together with the US’s recent seizure of assets which Jho Low bought (including diamond jewellery, artwork) are worth a collective US$85 million.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said it has reached an agreement with 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) former in-house lawyer Jasmine Loo Ai Swan to recover an artwork by famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and money in a Swiss bank account — both worth a total sum of US$1.8 million (over RM8.41 million according to current exchange rates) and allegedly originating from money stolen from 1MDB.

In its announcement dated July 23, the DoJ said this deal resolves its civil forfeiture action against the Picasso artwork and Switzerland financial account which was under her control, but said this does not mean that Loo is free from any criminal claims.

“The agreement with Loo announced today does not release any criminal claims against her,” it said.

The DoJ said it had also obtained forfeiture orders to seize other assets which Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho had allegedly bought using 1MDB’s money, including diamond jewellery, as well as artwork by famous artists Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and photographer Diane Arbus.

The DoJ said the forfeiture of these artwork and jewellery which Low allegedly bought is based on a recent agreement to settle two other forfeiture cases involving property and artwork, adding that this latest seizure resolves three additional civil forfeiture cases in California, US.

“The collective value of these assets, together with the Loo assets, is estimated to be nearly $85 million,” it said. (US$85 million is over RM397.2 million according to current exchange rates).

The DoJ said Low — or Jho Low as he is better known — still faces criminal charges in New York, US for alleged conspiracy to launder billions of dollars of embezzled 1MDB funds and alleged conspiracy to violate a corruption law by allegedly paying bribes to various Malaysian and Emirati officials, as well as criminal charges in Columbia, US for alleged conspiracy to make, conceal foreign, and conduit campaign contributions during the 2012 US presidential election.

After listing the existing criminal charges against Low, the DoJ said: “The agreement with Loo announced today does not release any entity or individual from filed or potential criminal charges.”

The US DoJ said over US$4.5 billion of 1MDB’s money were allegedly misappropriated from 2009 to 2015 by 1MDB officials and their associates including Low and Loo through a criminal conspiracy involving international money laundering and bribery, and that it had filed civil forfeiture cases to get back assets allegedly bought by Low and his co-conspirators using money allegedly stolen from 1MDB.

Before the latest deal with Loo, the DoJ said the US has returned or helped in returning to Malaysia over US$1.4 billion worth of assets linked to the international money laundering, embezzlement and bribery scheme.