Buyer emerges for Mayfair office forfeited in 1MDB scandal
The National Bank of Egypt is in talks to buy a Mayfair office block once owned by Malaysian financier Jho Low from the US Department of Justice, for around £34m.
It is understood to be planning to occupy the 16,523 sq ft of offices at 8-9 Stratton Street, W1.
The bank is currently based at the Crown Estate’s Trafalgar House, 11 Waterloo Place, SW1, where it occupies 12,486 sq ft on the lower floors.
The National Bank of Egypt is in talks to buy a Mayfair office block once owned by Malaysian financier Jho Low from the US Department of Justice, for around £34m.
It is understood to be planning to occupy the 16,523 sq ft of offices at 8-9 Stratton Street, W1.
The bank is currently based at the Crown Estate’s Trafalgar House, 11 Waterloo Place, SW1, where it occupies 12,486 sq ft on the lower floors.
The Mayfair property was one of several assets that Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho, more commonly known as Jho Low, and his family agreed to forfeit in October last year as part of a forfeiture lawsuit brought against the properties in 2017 by US prosecutors in California. It was formally forfeited on 29 February 2020.
The assets forfeited across the US, UK and Switzerland were purchased using funds allegedly misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the Malaysian government-run strategic development company, the US Department of Justice said in October. They included high-end real estate in Beverly Hills, New York and London, and were valued at more than $700m.
“As alleged in the complaints, Jho Low and others, including officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, engaged in a brazen multi-year conspiracy to launder money embezzled or otherwise misappropriated from 1MDB, and he used those funds, among other things, to engage in extravagant spending sprees, acquiring one-of-kind artwork and luxury real estate, gambling freely at casinos, and propping up his lavish lifestyle,” US assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski said in October.
“This settlement agreement forces Low and his family to relinquish hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains that were intended to be used for the benefit of the Malaysian people.”
In a statement on Low’s website, Low said the settlement was the outcome of “good faith discussions” with the US Department of Justice.
It added that the agreement “did not constitute an admission of guilt, liability or any form of wrongdoing” by Low or the asset owners.
The US Department of Justice and Low declined to comment.
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