WSJ insists China is harbouring Jho Low

Tom Wright and Bradley Hope coming out with new book “Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World”

(FMT) – Business daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which has long reported on 1MDB, has defended its coverage of the state fund, saying it will continue to report on the issue “in the same responsible manner”.

“The Wall Street Journal has a longstanding tradition of tough, ethical and fair journalism with high standards that have been the newspaper’s hallmark for over a century,” it said in a statement carried by The Edge last night.

“The many investigations and other activity pertaining to 1MDB are the subject of legitimate public interest and serious journalistic scrutiny.

“Given that, we will continue to cover the story as we have and in the same responsible manner. As always, we are open to talking with anyone who has questions, especially significant figures in ongoing news stories.”

WSJ was responding to claims by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, that the paper had breached journalistic ethics in a report suggesting that he was being made a bargaining chip by China ahead of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to Beijing.

Jho Low said the writers behind the report were giving a pro-Mahathir narrative as a prelude to an upcoming book.

“Today’s WSJ article was obviously planted there by the Mahathir regime, working with these reporters towards a common goal: WSJ reporters have a book coming out next month that they are trying to sell, while Dr Mahathir is intent on advancing his own corrupt political agenda by assigning guilt without any form of legal process,” he said in a statement to FMT issued by a Sydney-based public relations firm.

The WSJ article, which quoted unnamed sources from Singapore and Malaysia as saying that China could be harbouring Jho Low, was authored by among others Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, who were involved in the expose on 1MDB which WSJ published in 2015.

Low is believed to be referring to a new book by the duo, “Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World”, which zeroes in on Jho Low’s role in the 1MDB affair.

It is the businessman’s latest attack on the prime minister, in the wake of the handover of the Equanimity yacht, which US authorities said was bought by Jho Low using money stolen from 1MDB.