KUALA LUMPUR: Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, who is wanted by authorities for his alleged role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, may have entered China under an alias.
Lim said this was based on the information received from the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, who said the financier did not enter China using his Malaysian passport.
“I have spoken to the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, and he has given me assurance that according to their records he did not enter China based on the Malaysian passport,” he told radio station BFM on its Breakfast Grille programme today.
“Of course if he has got a different passport with a different name, then it’s a different story. But according to their records, Jho Low, Malaysian, is not in China.
“So we hope that of course this is the actual situation, and if he has somehow slipped in the defence authorities will also help us identify and locate him,” Lim said during the interview.
Lim also said the Chinese government has cooperated with Malaysia to locate Low, who is on the run following an indictment by the United States Department of Justice.
Low and another individual, Roger Ng, were charged in the federal court in the Eastern District of New York with conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB, among others.
The Penang-born Low has maintained his innocence following his indictment done in absentia.
The Malaysian court had also issued warrants of arrest against Low, better known as Jho Low, and his father, Tan Sri Larry Low Hock Peng.
This is to enable the duo to be detained abroad to face money-laundering charges related 1MDB.
Lim during the interivew said the Malaysian government is still on the hunt for Low and would request the country in which he is residing to extradite him.
It was reported that Low's St Kitts and Nevis' passport was deactivated by the country in June this year.