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Sarah, what is the nicest gift a man has ever bought you to express his romantic interest? Thank you for asking. I'm going to take you all the way back to grade five. Wow. It was Secret Santa and a guy gave me some used markers and I thought that was really sweet. He definitely had a huge crush on me. Oh, that is nice. Did it work? Yeah, obviously. Oh, okay.
Okay, well, I only ask because today I have a story that made me rethink what it means to splurge on a crush.
It's January 2014 in New York City. An Australian supermodel, Miranda Kerr, is walking through midtown Manhattan. With her piercing blue eyes and high cheekbones, Miranda sticks out anywhere. But tonight, she's especially striking. It's just after midnight, and she's wearing a full-on ball gown. She's just come from a formal event, but she's now headed to a restaurant to meet a friend. It's an old-school Korean barbecue spot, the kind with laminated menus in the window.
She scans the room and spots her friends sitting at a table with a group of other people. They just came from a long night singing karaoke, and they are feasting. Miranda takes a seat next to someone she's never met before. He's a Malaysian-born businessman with a round face and rimless glasses. He goes by the name Jolo. Miranda and Joe get to talking, and she learns that he's a multi-million dollar investor in companies like EMI Music Publishing and the Park Lane Hotel.
She's intrigued. Miranda's 30 years old, and she's getting tired of photo shoots and runways. She wants to make the shift into being an entrepreneur, starting with her skincare line, Cora Organics. Joe seems impressed by Miranda's business savvy. He keeps complimenting her, and they spark an unlikely connection. They talk all night, and the next morning, Miranda sends products from her skincare line over to Joe's apartment. She's convinced that she's just met her angel investor. But...
Joe is no angel. His fortune comes from a scam that takes billions of dollars from Malaysian citizens. Miranda has no idea that the kind, soft-spoken man sneaking his way into her life will soon be facing serious charges in multiple countries for a brazen international embezzlement scheme. From Wondery, I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And this is Scamfluencers. A bit off.
legend. Jolo presented himself as an over-the-top party boy, but behind the scenes, he was an economic genius who's been accused of manipulating the complex world of international banking to steal billions. He used the money to buy friends and power, but ultimately, he couldn't buy loyalty. In
In its inevitable and absurd demise, Joe's scheme led to the largest asset seizure in U.S. history, forced Leonardo DiCaprio to return an Oscar, and even brought down the Malaysian prime minister. I'm calling this episode, Jolo, How to Buy Friends and Influence People.
Before he becomes buddies with Leo DiCaprio, Joe is just another awkward teenager trying to get into a nightclub. It's the late 90s, and he and his wealthy boarding school buddies push their way to the front of the line outside China White. It's one of London's hottest clubs, and the VIP lounge is always packed with celebrities, models, and footballers. It's almost impossible to get in, but Joe is eager to impress his friends, and he's come up with a plan to get them inside.
One of Joe's classmates is a member of the Brunei royal family. So Joe sent the nightclub a forged note with letterhead from the Brunei embassy asking to reserve a table. When Joe shows up, it's probably not what the club was expecting. He's a short, dorky teenager. But the plan works and Joe and his friends are welcomed inside the club.
Joe's family is well off by most standards, but a lot of his classmates are the sons of literal billionaires. Joe's father is a mere millionaire. He made his fortune in the garment industry, but he's always dreamed of launching his family into the billionaire class. He's a relentless social climber who's been known to fly Swedish models to parties. And he's been training Joe to ingratiate himself with the uber wealthy by offering a good time.
Joe is super awkward, but he still manages to make friends with the well-connected Nepo babies at his London boarding school. It really does suck when you're like the millionaire and everyone else is a billionaire and you're just like, so hard. Like, I had to work so hard to get to where I am. I know. And it's like nobody appreciates it because they have a literal billion dollars. Mm-hmm. Well, after high school, Joe enrolls at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School. He wants to learn how to be a proper businessman. Mm-hmm.
But Joe still doesn't have charisma, and he really doesn't know how to talk to women. He quickly discovers that when his social skills fall short, money can talk for him.
He's always been obsessed with America and its wild parties and celebrities, especially Paris Hilton. He actually spends a lot of time watching her movie "House of Wax" over and over again, which annoys the hell out of his roommates. Luckily for Joe, his father wires him tens of thousands of dollars just to play around and party with. He takes rich friends to Atlantic City's Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino to gamble,
He even invites his classmate Ivanka Trump to join him, but she reportedly refuses. For his 20th birthday, Joe decides to go big. He rents out one of Philadelphia's hottest clubs, and he calls up a bunch of sororities to invite them to the party of the year. People eat sushi off nearly naked models, and a Marilyn Monroe impersonator sings "Happy Birthday" to Joe.
There's just one thing. The party costs $40,000. And Joe's already spent his dad's party with hotties money. So Joe negotiates with the club. And months later, he finally wears them down and gets away with paying just a fraction of what he owes. He's learning that it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.
Joe's fellow students don't know that he's a fraud. He becomes known as the Asian Great Gatsby. Rumors swirl that he's a Malaysian prince, and Joe doesn't deny them. As graduation looms, he starts planning for how he can take his college party connections into the real world and make good on his father's investment.
During his last semester, Joe sets up his first company. He calls it the Winton Group, which Joe says is short for win tons of money. And that's exactly what he set on doing, by any means necessary. After graduation, Joe returns to Malaysia, where he was born and raised. He sets up an office for the Winton Group in the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It's the most expensive office building in the entire country.
Joe's goal is to have a thriving investment firm, but he's learned that perception is everything. So he convinces a local bank to give him a loan to renovate his office. He installs a waiting pool, toilet seats that automatically adjust to the height of the user, and whiteboards that print out what you write on them. Unfortunately, it takes more than a fancy office to be successful. The Winton Group does not take off, and Joe spent all of his money on the office. Plus, he's in a ton of debt from the bank loan.
He stops paying rent on the office, and after a few months, he's evicted. But Joe still has connections. Plus, he's very persuasive. So he decides to start connecting wealthy Middle Eastern investors with Malaysian businesses.
He'll serve as a broker and collect fees after the deals are done. At one point, Joe facilitates a real estate deal with the Malaysian government that's worth a half a billion dollars. But when Joe asks for his broker fee, he's turned down. And this pisses him off. He feels like he spent his life catering to wealthy people. And now he's being boxed out.
Common broke struggles. This is what happens to people like us. Us millionaires amongst the billionaires. Yeah. Well, Joe may have been stiffed on a fee, but the Malaysian development project is ripe with opportunity. Joe switches gears and comes up with another get-rich-quick scheme. But first, he'll need to raise a lot of money. So he sets up a bogus investment group. He calls it the Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia Investment Company. Very official. And
And he gives free shares to his rich friends to make it look like the group has important investors. Then he creates a bunch of shell companies in the Seychelles to mask his ownership. Eventually, he's able to convince a bank to loan him tens of millions of dollars. He uses this money to buy a construction company, which he immediately sells to a Malaysian businessman at a huge markup. He later brags to friends that the deal was worth more than $100 million.
Joe's finally found his way into the stratosphere of extreme wealth. And he did it by using other people's money. Now, he's got his eye on an even bigger payday. And he's going to use the coffers of an entire country to make it happen. Nearly a year later, in August of 2009, the new prime minister of Malaysia is sailing on a yacht on the French Riviera. His name is Najib Rezek. He has bright white hair, a matching mustache, and a seemingly permanent frown.
Najib is on the yacht with an up-and-coming Malaysian businessman, Joe. Najib's stepson, Riza Aziz, went to boarding school with Joe, and their two families grew close in the years since. Najib has been impressed with Joe's supposed economic prowess, and he's recently started managing a fund that he thinks Joe can help him with. It contains more than a billion dollars. Technically, the fund does not belong to Najib. It belongs to the Malaysian government.
And the goal of it is to create jobs and boost economic development in that country, mostly by investing taxpayer money into things like green energy and tourism. And Najib, as the prime minister, essentially has full control over it. He gets to sign off on investments and have final say on its board members. He decides to rename it One Malaysia Development Burdada, or 1MDB for short.
And even though this money doesn't belong to them, Najeeb and Joe already have some big ideas about how to invest it and how to spend it. Which is why they've set up a meeting today with two Saudi businessmen. One of them is a literal prince. He's actually the owner of the yacht that they're on. It's got a swimming pool, a movie theater, and a helipad.
These two men run an oil extraction company called Petro Saudi International. And because one of them is a Saudi prince, they are extremely well connected to the royal family. It seems like they've got access to loads of cash and Najib and Joe decide they want in on it. We can't know exactly what was said during that meeting on the yacht, but it does seem like some plans were hatched while these men were lounging off the coast of Monaco.
Because about a month later, in September, the two companies, Petrosadi and 1MDB, announced a $2.5 billion deal together. According to a press release, the deal would strengthen the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Malaysia and, quote, make strategic investments in high-impact projects. But none of that actually happens.
It's very bold to put out a statement announcing this whole thing, knowing very well you will not be going through with it and not even thinking about the consequences of people finding that out. Yeah, it's almost impressive. And after all is said and done, 1MDB uses this deal as a guise to transfer more than a billion dollars of Malaysian government money into a Swiss bank account.
Najib and Joe lie and tell the banks that this account is owned by Petrosadi for use in their joint venture. You know, to work on high-impact projects, whatever that means. But the truth is, the owner of the account is just one person, Joe. He and Najib are planning to use the money not to enrich the people of Malaysia, but to pamper themselves. And now that he's got the cash in hand, Joe wants to live out the dream of every formerly uncool teenager.
Partying with hot celebrities. It's 2010, about six months after the Petro-Saudi deal goes through. Kim Kardashian is in Vegas to party with Joe and a bunch of his friends. Kim originally met Joe when he paid her $50,000 to go to his birthday party for two hours. And since then, the two have been BlackBerry messaging.
Kim doesn't know how Joe has all this money, and neither do the tabloids who call him the whale. They describe him as a mysterious playboy known for dropping insane amounts of money at New York City clubs like Pink Elephant and One Oak. He's been flying Paris Hilton around the world and paying her to party with him. There are rumors that Joe owns the five-star L'Hermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills, has several multi-million dollar properties, owns a Bombardier jet, and is close friends with Leonardo DiCaprio.
And Sarah, I am devastated to say that all of those rumors are completely true. I know they're true because I remember him being mentioned in tabloids, but I had no idea it was this, you know? Oh, yeah. It's very common that billionaires buy Celebrity Time. Yeah, but fake billionaires? That's good. I mean, what a breach of trust. Yeah.
Well, after the party in Vegas, Kim and Joe go to dinner and then out clubbing. Joe gets them into a private baccarat room. He hands Kim a stack of chips and tells her to go have fun. Joe loves to gamble, and he isn't afraid to throw around huge stacks of cash, like at Paris Hilton's 29th birthday party earlier that year. Joe lost $2 million in under 10 minutes without breaking a sweat. Cool.
Well, Kim uses the chips Joe gave her to play some games. But she's been partying all night, and she's fading. Around 5 a.m., she's ready to call it. But someone at the party reportedly persuades her to just grab a cup of coffee and stick around. Joe is known for gifting people cash at the end of the night. And when Joe finally decides it's time to turn in, he tells Kim to keep her chips. Kim later tells the FBI that the chips are worth $350,000. $350,000.
She flies home on Southwest with a trash bag full of $100 bills. It's so great when you hear stories about Kim Kardashian pre-Kim as we know her. You know what I mean? It's like she was just a girl like us, like we all are. Who wouldn't do this? Well, Joe is spending so much so fast that his pot of 1MDB cash is already drying up.
He may have invested some of the money into hotels and real estate, but it's not enough to make up for the jet-setting, partying, and gambling. So Joe convinces Prime Minister Najib to give him $800 million through 1MDB. Is Joe going to use this money to invest in the people of Malaysia? No! Instead, he's going to find an even more over-the-top way to attract famous friends: by helping them make a movie.
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Just use the code SCAMPOD. That's happymammoth.com, M-A-M-M-O-T-H, with the code SCAMPOD to get 15% off your entire first order. It's 2011 at the Cannes Film Festival in France, and Jolo is at a star-studded party with his good friend, Leonardo DiCaprio. The two have grown close over the last few years. Joe even affectionately calls Leo, El Dog,
The two bros spend long nights partying and hatching plans. They want to start a billion-dollar fund to produce movies, develop an eco-friendly resort in Belize, and even create a theme park in Asia based on Leo's films.
That's so great that they want to do all this stuff that will ruin the world and environment by creating a theme park and, you know, jet-setting around the world and partying on yachts. But at least they will open an eco-friendly resort in Belize. Leonardo DiCaprio is an environmentalist, okay? That's true, he is.
Well, at the Cannes party, the drinks are flowing, Kanye West is performing, fireworks are exploding, and it's all to announce the financing of Leo's passion project with director Martin Scorsese, a new film called The Wolf of Wall Street. In the movie, Leo will play Jordan Belford, a stock fraudster known for his lavish parties and outrageous spending.
This event is estimated to cost around $3 million, and the movie hasn't even started filming yet. But the financiers want to make a splash, and one of them is Najeeb's stepson, Riza Aziz. He's the co-founder of a new production company called Red Granite Pictures. Leo and Scorsese had been struggling to secure funding for the movie, and Red Granite was looking to get into the business. So Joe offered to give Riza the money to cover the film's $100 million budget. Joe
Joe's name is kept out of the press, but that doesn't stop people from speculating about where Red Granite got the money to bankroll the movie and throw such an outlandish event. It's all feeling very suspicious. The Wolf of Wall Street himself, Jordan Belfort, is at the party with his girlfriend. And Sarah, will you read what he said to her about the party? Yeah, he says, This is a fucking scam. Anybody who does this has stolen money. You wouldn't spend money you worked for like that.
Game recognized game. Listen, ballers notice ballers in the club.
Well, meanwhile, Joe and Najeeb have been coming up with more and more schemes to take money from 1MDB and deposit it into their own bank accounts. They get away with it in part by paying off the bankers they work with. Like when Goldman Sachs handles a bond transaction for 1MDB that's worth almost $2 billion, Joe gives the bankers $190 million as a thank you, even though the bank would normally only take home about a million dollars for a transaction like that.
With so much money rolling in, it's easy for the bankers to look the other way. But the people of Malaysia are starting to ask questions. And no matter how many offshore accounts Joe creates, he won't be able to hide his identity forever. It's an unusually hot November night in Las Vegas in 2012. The largest luxury suite at the Venetian Hotel is packed. It's Joe's 31st birthday and the party is raging. But actually, this is only the pre-party.
Joe strolls through the suite in his tuxedo, schmoozing up his celebrity friends. He waves to Alicia Keys and her music producer husband, Swiss Beats. He hugs former Fugees rapper, Pras Michelle, before hurrying off to talk movie ideas with Benicio Del Toro and L-Dog. Before long, a security team escorts them all to the main event.
Joe has turned an airplane hangar into his dream venue. One side is a circus with trampolines, a Ferris wheel, and a carousel. The other side is decked out like a nightclub, with cigar lounges and plush white couches for guests like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West to cuddle on. Oh my God, this is so like high school rich kid. And the popular kids are like, yeah, I mean, he throws great parties. Of course, we're going to keep him around. Yeah.
Well, there's also a stage where Jamie Foxx is emceeing. He plays a video of Joe's friends from around the world dancing to the hit song Gangnam Style. The crowd erupts when Psy takes the stage to perform it live. Guests are then treated to an hour and a half of live performances from Pharrell, Busta Rhymes, and Q-Tip. Ludacris and Chris Brown debut the song Everyday Birthday. Everyday she repped and I hit the floor, the floor. And dance like a right-hand man. Let's work.
Joe Lowe is pulled on stage as a giant faux wedding cake is wheeled towards him. The top of the cake bursts open and out pops fucking Britney Spears. She serenades Joe with her rendition of Happy Birthday. Joe stands on stage looking out over the sea of famous faces, the hundreds of so-called friends he's bought with his millions. But very few of these guests know Joe personally.
it doesn't seem to faze him. And actually, the money and power have started to go to his head. By 2013, about four years into his scheme, he's allegedly stolen more than a billion dollars from the 1MDB fund. He's found that if he's footing the bill, he can basically do and say whatever he wants.
At one point, he reportedly tells British model Roxy Horner that she needs to lose weight. And while recording his own vanity project in a music studio, he dares to call Busta Rhymes his bitch to Busta's face. For that alone, he deserves prison. Under the jail. To me, this is when he becomes a true villain. This is really when the harm happens, yes. You don't say that to Busta Rhymes. No!
But while Zhou is partying, Malaysia's politics are changing. Najib's political party has been in power ever since Malaysia gained independence in 1957. Now, the opposition party is gaining supporters, and Najib's grip on power is slipping.
Voters are starting to see how much he's spending. And it doesn't help that Najeeb's wife is famous for her diamond shopping sprees and collection of Birkin bags. Sarah, will you please describe what Resmaa looks like? Okay. So this is a woman who has the oddest hair I've seen in a very long time. It's an ink black helmet of hair. She looks like a Hey Arnold character. It's crazy. It's so...
And it's like, is that a wig she bought? Is that something people did for her? You know, she's definitely got that Botox-y look. Respect. I hope I look like her when I grow up. Well, Rosma needs to keep up appearances. And in order to do that, Najeeb needs to stay in power. Joe is also rooting for Najeeb to keep his elected position since their scam relies on government funding.
Joe realizes he needs to step in, and he decides the best way to help is to throw a huge party. Joe flies to Penang, Malaysia, to host a series of events to drum up political support for Najib. They offer free food and beer, they have raffles, and give away bicycles and other prizes. Joe even pays Busta Rhymes and Ludacris to come perform.
Sarah, can you describe this photo of Joe and Busta from the event? Well, if you ask me, he looks like Busta's bitch because he's pushing him around on a bike rickshaw. And Busta looks confused. He does.
But unlike his celebrity friends, the people of Malaysia are not easily distracted by Joe's lavish spending and star-studded events. On election day, they make it clear that they want Najib out. For the first time in 44 years, his party loses the popular vote. But they still end up winning more parliamentary seats. So Najib is able to remain in power. Voters are not happy about it. Within hours, they fill the city streets in protest.
Across the globe, in the U.S., Joe is still spending like crazy. 1MDB is $10 billion in debt. But Joe has a Playboy reputation to maintain. And he's about to turn his sights on a new prize. The heart of a supermodel. Even though 1MDB is starting to fall apart in Malaysia, Joe is riding high in America. The Wolf of Wall Street opens in December 2013 and becomes a smash hit.
Leo wins the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy. He even thanks Joe in his speech. I thank Joey, Riz, and Joe. Thank you for being not only collaborators, but taking a risk on this movie, truly. Shortly after this, Joe decides to start seriously courting Miranda Kerr.
He invites her to join him for the Super Bowl in New Jersey, and then he starts wooing Miranda with expensive gifts, even though he has a longtime girlfriend in Malaysia. So he has this longtime girlfriend back home in Malaysia, and he's publicly trying to court Miranda Kerr and various hot women. Something tells me she's okay with this because of money, perhaps? Yeah, maybe.
To the world, Joe is presenting himself as a thriving businessman. But behind the scenes, he's scrambling to keep everything afloat.
In Malaysia, the political blowback against 1MDB is reaching a fever pitch. There are suspicions that Najib has been using the government fund as his own personal piggy bank. And it doesn't help that Resmaa is always on outrageous shopping sprees. The former prime minister, who held office for more than two decades before Najib took his place, publicly denounces Najib. He calls for a full audit and investigation of 1MDB.
The company's board discovers that $2.3 billion have been moved out of the fund and into a Cayman Islands company. They demand that 1MDB return the money immediately. But Joe comes up with a new trick. He uses shell companies to transfer money around and make it look like the fund has more money than it does. And this actually works. At least for now.
At this point, the public still has no idea that Joe is involved in the fund or that he's been using its money to do things like finance the Wolf of Wall Street. But he must be feeling the pressure. He tries to keep his cool in front of Miranda. For Valentine's Day, he gives her a heart-shaped diamond necklace worth over a million dollars. He then invites her aboard his new superyacht, Equanimity, which he bought with a $250 million loan from Deutsche Bank.
He also sends a very special gift to her house in Malibu. Not a dozen roses or even a car with a bow on it, Joe sends Miranda a grand piano worth more than $170,000. It's made of clear acrylic so you can see the hardware through it. Miranda showed it off in a video for Vogue. My grandmother had a grand piano, and so I've got a grand piano. ♪
So at this point, is she actually his girlfriend or is he still just buying her very expensive things so that people wonder? We don't really know for sure, but it is clear that he's like really courting her. Like for Miranda's 31st birthday, Joe throws her a 90s theme party. He flies Salt-N-Pepa, Mark Morrison, and Vanilla Ice to New York City to perform. Jamie Foxx emcees and Swizz Beatz, Leo, and Miranda's ex, Orlando Bloom, are amongst the hundred or so attendees.
The weekend of birthday festivities concludes with a Miami-style party on a yacht on the Hudson River and a helicopter ride to hit the Baccarat Tables in Atlantic City. But even with all that, Miranda and Joe's romance won't survive the year, and neither will the secret of Joe's involvement in 1MDB. As more banks and businesses get involved, it leaves room for someone to crack. And when they do, a scrappy British journalist is waiting to publish the whole story.
It's October 2014, and Claire Rewcastle-Brown is sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Bangkok.
Claire is a London-based journalist in her early 50s. She has kind eyes and long hair with bangs. She kind of reminds me of, like, a high school art teacher. Like, the cool one. She was born on an island off Malaysia when it was still part of the British Commonwealth. And now, she runs a website called the Surawak Report. It's dedicated to exposing corruption in Malaysia. And Claire is good. Malaysian politicians have even labeled her an enemy of the state, a badge she wears with pride. ♪
She's here in this Bangkok hotel to meet a source. He's a Swiss banker and a former employee of Petro Saudi, the company 1MDB did their first billion-dollar deal with. She's expecting someone with Swiss banker vibes. Bald, glasses, shrimpy. But the man who approaches her is 6'6", with black hair, and a very 90s goatee. Claire later says that her first instinct was to run. She thinks she's been tricked, and he's here to rough her up. But it turns out he's actually her source, Javier Justo.
Javier tells Claire he was hired as the director of Petrosati after they signed the 1MDB deal. Petrosati promised him a big salary, but they only ever paid him about half of it. He got pissed and he quit. On his way out the door, he copied one of their servers full of damning evidence. He tried to blackmail the company to get the money he was owed, but they refused to pay. And he figured he'd leverage the server another way, by giving it to a journalist like Claire for a price.
Javier promises Claire that the information on the server can bring down 1MDB. And it's hers for $2 million.
I mean, that is a lot of money and obviously is not very ethical. But at the same time, it's either she pays or someone else does and gets the story. Yeah, someone will pay for it. But Claire needs reinforcements. So she decides to contact Tong Kuei Ong, the owner of a Malaysian media outlet called The Edge. Unlike most Malaysian media companies, The Edge isn't afraid of political blowback. The site posts frequently about 1MDB.
Claire convinces Tong to meet with Javier. And three months later, they sit down with him at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore. Javier explains that the server can prove that 1MDB was putting hundreds of millions of government dollars directly into Jolo's personal bank account. Tong thinks a bombshell like this is worth the price, so he agrees to pay the $2 million. And one month later, Claire runs an article with the headline, Heist of the Century.
It's picked up by news outlets around the world. Word of Joe and Najib's rampant corruption is out. And now their scheme is about to come crashing down. ♪
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She's trying on silk scarves, but Najeeb suddenly can't stop staring at his phone. His world is being rocked by a blog post. Najeeb's been in power for six years, and behind the scenes, his 1MDB scheme has floundered. The fund is $11 billion in debt. And now, Claire's article has completely exposed the scam. There's nowhere to hide. But Najeeb still has the power of his office, and he's desperate to keep it.
He cracks down on the press and issues harsh penalties on free speech, especially on social media. He arrests five executives from the edge and threatens to hold them indefinitely under a new law that was created for terrorists. My God, way to make things so much worse for yourself, buddy. He's proving everybody's point.
Well, three months later, Najib bans The Edge from publishing altogether. But it doesn't stop Claire from reporting from London. Four months after her first explosive article, she teams up with reporters at The Wall Street Journal. They reveal that Najib put $681 million of 1MDB funds into several of his personal accounts. Against Najib's best efforts, the news still reaches Malaysia, and people call for his arrest.
He denies the claims as Malaysian investigators raid the 1MDB offices. But Najib is not going to go down without a fight. When he gets word that the Malaysian attorney general is looking to press charges, Najib fires him and puts out a statement that the AG is sick and cannot continue serving. He then promotes government investigators into positions where they can't continue the probe, effectively shutting down the investigation.
The next day, a fire breaks out in the police headquarters and tons of important documents go up in smoke. Najib has managed to build a wall around himself in Malaysia. But a scam this massive and this international quickly gets the attention of authorities all over the world. And he can't stop them all. After Claire cracked open Joe's money trail, hungry investigators all over the world start coming for him. Through Interpol, Singapore puts out a red notice for Joe and his associates.
The U.S. government also files a civil suit in California. It accuses Risa's company, Red Granite, of using the movie The Wolf of Wall Street to launder money. Joe swears he's innocent. He flees the U.S. in hopes of escaping extradition, and he eventually makes his way to China with his wife and two-month-old baby. ♪
Joe has a baby? I mean, it's crazy to think that while this was all happening, he ended up marrying that woman and having a two-month-old baby. Yeah, men get away with the craziest shit. As Joe's scheme starts to crumble, many of his famous friends abandon him like rats from a sinking ship.
They turn his lavish gifts over to the U.S. government to avoid being implicated in his crimes. Leo returns a Picasso, a collage by Basquiat, and Marlon Brando's 1954 Oscar for On the Waterfront. Miranda returns $8 million in jewelry and offers to give back the piano. But when the government examines her house, they realize they need to knock down walls to retrieve it. They decide it's just cheaper to leave it.
I mean, does that just mean that if something's big enough and it's stolen, you might not have to give it back? I'm liking this loophole. While not everyone turns their back on Joe, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz decide to keep traveling and partying with him. Swizz even attends a birthday party that Joe throws in Thailand for his older brother. Joe manages to pay Nelly, Neo, and Nicole Scherzinger to perform. And even still, it's a modest affair by Joe's standards. That is so...
It is so crazy that these people see what's happening and they're like, you know what, let's just milk him. Like, let's see how far we can go with using this billionaire's money knowing that he's a thief. Well, here's the natural progression of that. Joe also allegedly pours some money into Donald Trump's reelection campaign, hoping that he will drop the investigation against him. It goes nowhere. The evidence and the global outrage continue to mount.
In May 2018, Najib loses his bid for re-election. The news comes in around 2 a.m. as he sits in his mansion, surrounded by family. He's shocked. He actually thought he couldn't lose after he spent millions bribing government officials. For the first time since Malaysia became a democracy, the opposition party is in power. Najib and his wife Resmaa try to flee the country on a private jet. But others in the government leak their plans and protesters mob the airport.
Days later, Najib is resting at home after a trip to his mosque when over a dozen cop cars surround the property. Police storm the house looking for evidence. And that night, they raid six of Najib's other houses. They seize 35 bags of cash and 26 currencies, totaling about 30 million U.S. dollars. They find 25 bags of gold, hundreds of Aramay's handbags, and even more watches. Two months later, Najib is arrested.
That is insane. This man is leading a country and he... Not anymore. No, but it's so crazy that a world leader was so brazen. Like, that's just what you could see. Forget the stuff that's hidden away. That's in the floorboards, yeah.
Well, two years after the arrest, Najib is convicted in Malaysia. He's fined $46 million and sentenced to 12 years in jail. His stepson, Riza, reaches a settlement to pay the U.S. $60 million in assets. He also agrees to testify against Najib. Goldman Sachs is ordered to pay nearly $3 billion for conspiring in the 1MDB scandal.
Individual bankers are also charged, and one gets a 10-year prison sentence. At this point, this is the largest international kleptocracy case the U.S. has ever pursued. And since Joe fled the United States, the government has seized about $900 million worth of his assets. That includes houses, a hotel, a private jet, and a mega yacht. But Joe still has cash hidden in accounts all over the world.
He's wanted in Malaysia, Kuwait, the U.S., and Singapore. And even after being the center of a nearly $5 billion global fund, Joe remains at large, possibly at a baccarat table near you. Okay, so based on Malaysian intelligence, it seems like Joe is in Macau in China, but he is very much free, Sarah. How does that make you feel? As a millionaire...
What does that make you feel? That is so crazy. This guy who is so visible, he has been in so many photos, been so many places. This is such a high profile thing that happened. It involved some of the most famous people in the world and a world leader. And this guy is just maybe nearby in Macau. I'm so floored that
He's just out. He's out here. He's out here, man. Yeah. He got away with it. I am surprised you're so shocked. You are usually very cynical about what happens to these people. Well, this is the thing. This is so hard. Like, how do they just not catch him? Like, physically catch this guy?
I mean, the thing about the Jolo case is that I don't think he's going to be able to like quietly sit in Macau with his wife and baby for very long. Like he's going to try to scam again because I think it's pathological for someone like him. And the money will run out the way he's spending it. Even if there are all these shell funds that he has, the money will run out and he's going to have to like steal some more. Who knows? Like this guy seems so resourceful. I
This guy's out here. If you were a famous person hanging out with Jolo, at what point would you have been like, this all seems like bullshit. I need to stop spending time with this guy. You know, whenever I think of situations like this, I think of how they play out in much, much lower stakes. Like there's so many people you know, friend groups you know, where there's just one terrible person who has one specific thing to offer and no one can drop them, you know?
And so imagine that guy, but he has billions of dollars he's willing to spend on you. I feel like I might be that guy. So I'm open to being a billionaire if I have to be that guy. I also know that guy and I'm open to that guy being a billionaire. If you were that guy, I don't think you are because you'd have to have more to offer. No offense, but...
Nice. Not untrue. It also kind of frames wealth in a very specific way because I think it's very easy to see celebrities and famous people as like, you know, they're going to be rich forever. They're so rich. They have so much money. And they do. But the thing is, like, they still aren't at the very, very top unless they are very savvy business people. So to me, it kind of shows that like
This is just one example, but you look at pictures from Cannes during the film festival, they're all on billionaire yachts getting paid to just hang out with people. It's like a very common, normal thing that people don't think about because everyone just assumes, oh, they have millions of dollars, they don't need more money. But of course they do. I feel like the lesson for today is that the real scam is in getting someone to pay you to just hang out. And you and I need to figure out how to get it on that racket. Listen, people,
hang out with us and we have very little to offer them. I think that says a lot about our character. If you at home are very rich and you love swarthy, gumby and pokey duo teams, Sarah and I are happy to sit at a Chili's with you for any amount of money. Listen, if you're offering me food, I'm there. I'm there.
Okay. You know how many situations I've been in because of a free meal or like an hors d'oeuvre? Right. Forget a meal. Okay, so the real moral is that Sarah and I will do anything for a little crudité. A little crunchy, crunchy on a tiny plate. We're there. You give me tuna tartare on some crunchy thing, I'm there. I'll brush my hair for the event.
This is JOLO, how to buy friends and influence people. I'm Sakshi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scamfluencersatwondery.com.
We used many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were 1MDB, the inside story of the world's biggest financial scandal by Randy Bermesh in The Guardian, Tom Wright and Bradley Hope's book, Billion Dollar Whale, and the New York Times article, Joe Lowe, While Connected in Malaysia, Has an Appetite for New York by Louise Story and Stephanie Saul. Rachel Borders wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagee.
Our senior producer is Jen Swan. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peary. Our story editor and producer is Sarah Enney. Eric Thurm is our story editor. Sound design is by James Morgan. Fact-checking by Will Tavlin. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freeze on Sync. Our coordinating producer is Desi Blaylock. Our managing producer is Matt Gant, and our senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr.
Kate Young and Olivia Richard are our series producers. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our senior producer is Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Jens, Jenny Lauer-Beckman, and Marshall Louis. For Wondery. Wondery.
If you like Scamfluencers, you can listen to every episode early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
