The filing of the plea by Jho Low for a Presidential pardon in the United States took place in January against an extraordinary background, whereby the Malaysian fraudster played a key role in secret negotiations between China and Malaysia to write off 1MDB-related debts at the end of last year, according to exclusive information obtained by Sarawak Report.

Meetings even took place involving the fugitive fraudster in KL itself under the protection of the Chinese delegation, sources have claimed.

The pardon plea was published by the Wall Street Journal overnight, just as the US President Donald Trump was boarding his flight to Beijing for a critical summit with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The talks will focus on the deteriorating global situation following America’s sudden initiation of hostilities against Iran, however the suggestion that the Chinese fugitive believes he can ‘buy’ a pardon by settling his debts over 1MDB brings embarrassment to both leaders.

In the US there has been a flurry of social media comment relating to the Trump administration’s existing record in providing pardons to foreign fraudsters believed to have found ways to benefit the President’s own family businesses. Meanwhile, there are huge questions over China’s own complicity in facilitating Jho Low’s record breaking fraud at the expense of the Malaysian public purse and then continuing to provide apparent refuge.

Sarawak Report has learned from its own government sources that Jho Low’s engagement in Chinese politicking and influence buying abroad has indeed continued at the highest levels. His lobbying in Washington and attempts on behalf of China to trade cash and hostages for the extradition of the wanted billionaire Miles Guo has already landed the rap star Pras Michel in jail with 14 year sentence earlier this year, likewise the republican lobbyist Nancy Lum Davis has been sentenced to two years.

Sarawak Report has also exposed the involvement of Obama’s former fundraiser Frank White in the China/Jho Low network and the former Republican chief fundraiser, Elliot Broidy, who himself escaped jail through a Presidential pardon from Trump in 2020 for advocating the Guo/Najib agenda.

Despite such exposure, Jho Low has continued to find protection at the highest levels in China, and according to our information even attended secret talks in Kuala Lumpur as part of a Chinese delegation at the end of last year to draw a line under the remaining issues with China relating to 1MDB and, more particularly, the Chinese state’s scandalous role in assisting the imprisoned former PM Najib Razak in the cover-up.

Jho Low himself was pivotal to that cover-up, whereby the embattled Najib, having been exposed by Sarawak Report and then the US Department of Justice for stealing billions of dollars from the bogus sovereign fund, raised further billions in loans from China to cover the resulting debts.

The loans, negotiated primarily by Jho Low on behalf of Najib, were on the pretext of funding Belt & Road projects that were either fraudulently inflated (the East Coast Rail Line) or never materialised (the Sabah Pipeline Project). As documents published by Sarawak Report (now confirmed by numerous court cases) have shown, the Chinese negotiators were fully aware of the fraudulent purpose and facilitated the laundering of the borrowed money through Chinese state banks and companies, primarily through Kuwait.

At the time it was widely noted that Najib concurrently signed up to key economic and defence deals that brought Malaysia more closely under the influence of China.  It also left Malaysia with enormous debts and interest payments, totalling some $3 billion for the pipeline deal alone, which have continued to hang over the heads of successive Malaysian governments tasked with repaying the enormous 1MDB debts and cover-up costs.

According to Sarawak Report’s exclusive information, Jho Low’s intricate knowledge of the situation and contacts in Malaysia played into his involvement in a key resolution of this situation by the present government which, we understand, has achieved a settlement whereby China will write off the debt in return for drawing a line under the matter and Beijing’s own sordid involvement. Conditions have included no future claims against the construction companies CCCC and China Pipeline Bureau or the two banks, Exim Bank and ICBC, who raised and laundered the money.

Far more controversial will have been the demand also that Malaysia’s Red Notice should continue to be suspended against Jho Low and future extradition efforts set aside. This appears to be a continuation of the negotiations that were initiated by Jho’s US lawyers with the Ismail Sabri government in 2022, since when the INTERPOL notice by Malaysia has been noticeably absent.

Sarawak Report has been unable to confirm the extent to which Malaysia may have pledged to withhold its prosecution of the fraudster as part of these negotiations. Today the minister in charge of the 1MDB Asset Recovery Task Force, Johari Abdul Ghani, went on record to denounce and deny knowledge of any such decision.

However, a perceived progress in the direction of settling Malaysia’s issues with China over 1MDB at the end of 2025 may well have spurred Jho Low’s US lawyers into seeking to clear his copybook in the United States by offering to pay back further 1MDB related debts (he was touting RM1.5 billion / $380 million in 2022) in return for a radically diminished sentence in that country or a free pass altogether.

It was on similar terms that both Elliot Broidy and Frank White were able to cut deals and escape jail time themselves, by surrendering up their 1MDB-related earnings to the Department of Justice. Likewise, the Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner, who drastically diminished his jail time by handing over at least some of the money stolen from Malaysia.

Sarawak Report is awaiting official comment on the news of the partial settlement from government sources in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, publishers have launched pre-sales for the upcoming book on China’s Belt & Road entanglement in Malaysia’s 1MDB cover up phase.  The China Contract, written by Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown and due for publication in October can be accessed from The Westbourne Press and will be available through Amazon.