Malaysian businessman Jho Low had quite the side hustle going on for years. He was part of a scam that defrauded a sovereign wealth fund of $700 million, and he allegedly used a lot of that loot to fly in celebrities to party with him all over the world.
All the juicy details are coming out in his co-conspirator’s money laundering and bribery trial, Roger Ng. A third member of this white-collar crime crew, Tim Leissner, worked at Goldman Sachs and was Ng’s boss. It’s Leissner who is cooperating with prosecutors. According to the feds, Ng and Leissner helped Low embezzle the funds and received bribes and kickbacks for his efforts.
Let’s get to the good stuff. Leonardo DiCaprio was once paid $150,000 to fly on a private jet to Vegas and hit one of Low’s parties there.
While Leo was by far the biggest movie star Low would pay to play; he wasn’t the highest-paid. Megan Fox took home a quarter million for a night of partying. Paris Hilton got $100K, and poor Kim Kardashian was only able to command a $50,000 appearance fee.
Say this about the Ng, Leissner, and Low – they were ambitious. Brent Bible is the federal prosecutor working on this case. Here’s a quote he gave to Bloomberg.
“This was a scheme to steal $1 billion. The defendant Roger Ng saw an opportunity to get rich by cheating.”
Ng’s lawyer said Leissner was the brains of the operation, who wanted to live the good life and “bought homes for all the women in his life.”
What’s ironic is that Jho Low never paid J-Lo to attend one of his parties.
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