This page is to simply set the record straight about my acquaintanceship with the Mayaysian businessman and financier Low Taek Jho, who is also known as Jho Low. The page has been written [in April 2025] because of the newly created $JHOLOW meme coin bounty system that’s been launched to get information and tip-offs to locate him. Other than the information below, I don’t know anything more and don’t want want to be contacted in relation to Jho or the 1Malaysia Development Berhad [1MDB] situation.
Background
I first met Jho in 2013 through our involvement in the music industry. At the time, he was on the board of EMI Music Publishing and I was the co-founder and a co-director of Faith & Hope Records (still am). Jho was often in London at his Stratton Street flat and although we hit it off immediately, we were clearly from different backgrounds and were totally different social animals with him liking outlandish and lavish Hollywood style parties and me liking quiet dinners with friends.
I really don’t know why Joh and I hit it off, but we were both good networkers (him, better than me) and I know we both felt like ‘outsiders’, even down to the fact that Penang (where Jho was from) and Morecambe (where I am from) are both on the northwest coasts of our respective countries and we both felt that both places are were out on a limb geographically, commercially, and culturally.
When we first met, although Jho had been involved with financing a film company called Red Granite Pictures in 2010 – which was the film company behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ – he was pretty new to music publishing and as a non-exec chair of EMI publishing, was clearly excited to be involved in the industry and keen to know more about it from whoever he met.
By early 2014, my career had done ok. The label I co-owned had a string of hits including a UK #1, our music was on Hollywood films like Vanilla Sky, Serendipity, Get Carter remake, etc, and my label co-director (Neil Claxton aka Mint Royale) was just about to have a track with Willem Dafoe called ‘Ring’ on the 2014 Super Bowl ESPN Promo [watch].
In what seemed a short period of time, Jho and I both seemed to find out a lot about one another [upbringing, family, business, etc] and I enjoyed his company, conversation, and found him to be warm and open.
There’s no doubt that Jho had lots of plates spinning at the time and through a subdidiary linked to Jho’s Jynwel Capital business – which he founded a few years before I met him – he had already invested over $100 million in the Sony led consortium that acquired EMI Music Publishing for $2.2 billion in 2012 and was trying to buy [with others] Reebok off Adidas in another $2 billion deal [this deal didn’t come off].
As well as EMI, Jho was involved at board level with lots of businesses through Jynwel and – although I can’t remember many of the names – I know he had lots of amazing real estate, a stake in Viceroy Hotels, Park Lane Hotel [New York], Electrum, Lilestone Myla, and of course Red Granite.
By mid 2014, I knew Jho Low better and he looked and acted like a legitimate and incredibly successful businessman and philanthropist who was being written about positively in publications like ‘Forbes’ and ‘The New York Times’.
I certainly didn’t suspect or expect that Jho would be accused of financial wrongdoings and still find it hard to believe that he was involved with something like the 1Malaysia Development Berhad [1MDB] situation. His acquaintances have come in for fierce and severe criticism with harsh accusations since the 1MDB allegations. Some think we were all ‘naive’, and some think ‘they must have known’ which is unfortunately a sentiment that still lingers today with some.
What I would like people to remember is back in early 2015, Jho was flying high….. literally! He was flying around the world in his $35 million Bombardier Global 5000 jet; holidaying on his $250 million 300ft superyacht; driving a fleet of luxury cars; living in the most amazing homes in London, Paris, New York, LA, Et al.; owned an artwork collection from Van Gogh and Monet to Warhol and Basquait; threw parties for high profile celebrities; doing deals with royalty, governments, international banks; and dating a supermodel [Miranda Kerr].
Whatever Jho did or didn’t do in relation to 1MDB, at the time, he looked like a plausible and incredibly successful businessman. Although there were rumours in the press of irregularity around his involvement in 1MDB in 2015 (these rumours somehow passed me by), ironically, I hadn’t even heard of 1MDB until 2016 and certainly didn’t know anything at all about the alleged situation back then.
I last saw Jho in London in September 2014 and we were in touch a couple of times between then and February 2015. Since then, I haven’t seen or heard from him.