WSJ skipped Jho Low funding Malaysian Insider story: Source

The Wall Street Journal, the US based newspaper that broke the 1MDB story along with the Sarawak Report blog, did not report on the Malaysian news portal funded by fugitive playboy Jho Low after it was tipped on the story.

One of the writers of the ‘Billion Dollar Whale’ best seller was tipped on Jho Low funding the Malaysian news portal The Malaysian Insider and on 1MDB actors attempting to buy a bank in Mauritius.

“Tips were given to one of the writers of the ‘Billion Dollar Whale’ book on Jho Low, but they wanted more information and confirmed sources,”

“They were also told about an attempt by 1MDB-linked officials going to Mauritius to buy a bank or get a banking license,” said a source to The Independent.

The source showed chat messages between him and the WSJ reporter talking on TMI’s funding and on a bank note worth billions of dollars signed by a high official in the then Malaysian government under Najib Razak.

The cash was to buy a bank but the Mauritian Central Bank smelling a rat, rejected the deal.

WSJ on Nov. 7, 2017 published a story saying two men with links to the alleged mastermind of a multibillion-dollar Malaysian financial scandal launched a bid last year (2016) to buy a controlling stake in a bank in Mauritius.

WSJ said the deal took shape in the months after the US Justice Department alleged in a July 2016 civil asset-forfeiture lawsuit that Jho Low, the Malaysian financier, helped divert billions of dollars from state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

However, WSJ did not pursue the story on TMI. It did not get back to the people who tipped them off on the matter.

“The writers of the Billion Dollar Whale book did not mention that Jho Low was funding the Malaysian news portal in their best seller. They simply buried the story which is now in the news,” says the source.

On Friday, The Edge reported that Jho Low or Low Taek Jho, accused of siphoning money from 1MDB and seen as ex-PM Najib Razak’s main associate in the scandal that rocked the world, was funding TMI.

it says Jho Low had given a whopping US$9 million (now RM37.5 million) to bankroll former news portal TMI back in 2010.

The Edge, which bought over TMI in 2014, however says it was not aware the portal was funded by Jho Low.