Jho Low became known as “The Asian Great Gatsby.”
His associations included Kimora Lee Simmons, Jamie Foxx, Busta Rhymes, Kasseem Dean, Emily Ratajkowski, Alicia Keys–and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
At the height…
Low may have had access
to more cash at any one time
than anyone in history.
In the parlance of casino and nightclub operators, where big spenders are often referred
to as “whales,” Low was the biggest whale Las Vegas, Saint Tropez and New York had
ever encountered. He had friends in the nightclub world and elsewhere who could
“arrange” for celebrities to hang out with him or attend his parties for a fee.
In July 2012, Low held a yacht party on the French Riviera and ordered for models
to be flown in. This deed was written out as “Strategic Escorts LLC.”
Alex Cohen, the chief financial officer of Strategic Group, a firm that arranged
parties for Low, stated that he helped organize several events
that included A-list guests such as Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jamie Foxx, and Fergie.
Some of the paid celebrities grew into friends or even business associates.
For example, Swizz Beatz saw him as more than someone who paid
fees—he saw Jho as a business opportunity.
Expenses for his lavish parties went up to six figures as he paid celebrities like Megan Fox and Padma Lakshmi to attend, according to the New York Post.
The federal government alleges that the
parties were funded by stolen money from 1MDB.
In their new book Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World, Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
paint a picture of Low’s lifestyle and what it portends for the
global financial system, Hollywood, and corporate America.
The authors write that he spent $85 million on parties between October 2009 and June 2010.
Highlights include:
running up a $160,000 tab at New York City’s The Avenue,
sending 23 bottles of Cristal champagne to Lindsay Lohan’s table at 1Oak.
Alex Cohen told the jury Low paid extravagant sums to lure celebrities to parties:
$50,000 to Kim Kardashian,
$100,000 to Hilton,
DiCaprio $150,000
and was once flown on a private jet to a
party in Las Vegas that was hosted by Jho Low
$250,000 to Fox
Low developed a crush on Paris Hilton and watched her movie “House of Wax” multiple times,
which caused eye rolls from his roommates, according to The New York Post.
Low contacted Paris Hilton’s manager in 2009 to see if he could pay her to attend his parties.
According to the book, she told friends she got paid $100,000 per event.
The authors describe a party in Saint-Tropez, France, in July 2010,
for which Low had rented the 303-foot super yacht Tatoosh from
Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen:
In a literal competition of opulence, Low beat out a New York real estate scion
named Winston Fisher by spending 2 million euros on champagne.
Low and his entourage, including Hilton, began opening the bottles
and pouring them on each other.
Low reportedly sent a note to Ivanka Trump as his partying habits developed,
inviting her to a gambling trip to Atlantic City’s Trump Plaza Hotel.
He later told his friends that she declined because she didn’t want to set foot
in one of her father’s ‘skeevy’ casinos.
In early 2014, he had then started a romantic relationship with Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr.
Both The Great Gatsby and Billion Dollar Whale are set in times of extreme wealth inequality,
says author, Wright. In the Roaring Twenties, the stock market made a chosen few
extremely wealthy. Today, you could argue, it is access to trillions of dollars
in investment funds, whether hedge funds, private equity funds, or, in Low’s case,
sovereign wealth funds. Those who master this universe have access to boundless
wealth, and can recreate their identities. Giving the impression that he was rich and
could make you rich and that he had a lot of rich friends was a critical component of
Jho’s whole way of doing business.
Sources:
https://www.sizezero.org/blog/darksideofmodeling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuElbzeSEA4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-FEaFcyj3Q
https://nsp.lse.ac.uk/articles/158
https://scandalous.media/blog/dark-hollywood-yachting
https://www.the-triton.com/2023/04/the-dark-side-of-yachting/
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-66479335
https://www.superyachtcontent.com/superyacht-crew-lifestyle/sexual-abuse-in-yachting/
https://www.courttv.com/news/lawsuit-targets-diddy-and-son-apple-does-not-fall-far-from-the-tree/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jho_Low
https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-kardashian-flew-home-vegas-250k-trash-bag-jho-low-2023-3
https://fortune.com/2022/03/07/jho-low-fugitive-1mdb-financier-biography/
https://nypost.com/2018/09/15/i-own-you-youre-my-bitch-jho-lows-hollywood-power-play/
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