The reason I have written this page in April 2025 is because there is a newly created $JHOLOW meme coin bounty system launched that is designed to obtain tip-offs to locate the whereabouts of the Mayaysian businessman and financier Low Taek Jho [also known as Jho Low]. This page is here to set the record straight about my acquaintanceship with Jho Low when he was the Non-Executive Chairman of EMI Music Publishing in Asia and I have nothing further to say, do not have any further information about him, and do not want want to be contacted by anyone in relation to Jho or the 1Malaysia Development Berhad [1MDB] situation.
Jho Low
I first met Jho in 2012 through our involvement in the music industry. At the time, he was on the board of EMI Publishing and I was a co-founder and co-director of Faith & Hope Records… which I still am.
Jho was often in London and although we hit it off immediately, we were from totally different backgrounds and were different social animals (he liked outlandish and lavish Hollywood style parties and I like quiet dinners with friends).
I don’t know why we hit it off, but I know we both felt like we were outsiders as Penang where Jho was from and Morecambe where I am from, are both out on a limb on the northwest coasts of our respective countries.
When we first met, although Jho had been involved with financing a film company in 2010 [Red Granite Pictures], he was new to the world of music publishing and as a new non-exec chair of EMI publishing, was clearly excited to be involved and keen to know more about the industry from whoever he met.
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After saying this, in a short period of time, we both got to know a lot about one another [upbringing, family, business, etc] and I enjoyed his company, conversation and found his personality to be warm and open.
There is no doubt that Jho Low had lots of plates spinning at the time. Through a subdidiary trust linked to his business Jynwel Capital, which he founded a few years before I met him, he had invested over 100 million US dollars in the Sony led consortium that acquired EMI Music Publishing for $2.2 billion in 2012. As well as EMI, he was involved at board level with lots of businesses through Jynwel Capital and although I can’t remember many, I know he had lots of properties and a stake in Park Lane Hotel New York, Viceroy Hotels, Electrum investments, Lilestone, and Red Granite Pictures which was the film company behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.
By early 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 the likes of ‘Forbes’ and ‘The New York Times’. I certainly didn’t suspect or expect he would be accused of financial wrongdoings… and still find it hard to believe that he was involved with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad [1MDB] scandal.
Some of Jho Low’s acquaintances from back then have come in for fierce and severe criticism and harsh accusations since the 1MDB allegations. At best, some seem to think acquaintances were naive, and at worst, some have a ‘they must have known’ air, that still floats around today.
What people need to remember is that back in early 2015, Jho Low was flying high… literally! He was flying around the world in his 35 million US dollar Bombardier Global 5000 jet; holidaying on his 250 million US dollar superyacht [Equanimity]; driving around in a fleet of luxury cars; living in the most amazing homes; owned artwork by the likes of Van Gogh and Claude Monet; threw parties for his friends [Leonardo DiCaprio, Alicia Keys, Kim Kardashian, etc] and was dating the supermodel Miranda Kerr.
Whatever Jho Low did or didn’t do in relation to 1MDB, at the time, he looked like a plausible and successful businessman. Although there were rumours in the press of irregularity around Jho Low’s involvement in 1MDB in 2015, these rumours passed me by and I had no idea about the scandal until early 2016.
I last saw Jho Low in-person in London in September 2014 [the weekend my businesses Promenade Music had a stand at the London Acoustic Guitar Show at the Olympia Conference Centre] and we were in touch occasionally by phone until February 2015. Since then, I haven’t seen or heard from him.