Transparent piano among goods purchased by Jho Low with 1MDB funds – report

PETALING JAYA (Dec 10): A transparent grand piano that may have cost more than US$1 million (RM4.17 million) was among some of the more extravagant purchases bought with the billions of dollars fugitive financier Jho Low had siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), reported the New York Times.

The piano, made by the Crystal Music Company in the Netherlands, was gifted by the billionaire – whose real name is Low Taek Jho – to supermodel Miranda Kerr.

While Kerr said she was happy to give up the clear-acrylic grand piano to the authorities – after returning jewellery gifted by Low worth millions that include a 11.71-carat heart-shaped diamond – the extraction of the musical instrument is complicated.

This is because the piano was originally placed at an outdoor patio in her Malibu home, but walls were erected to protect the delicate instrument, turning the space into another room.

Recovering the instrument would entail demolishing part of her expensive house to remove the piano and then repairing the building, sources told the publication.

Moreover, the instrument may be damaged in the process, incurring additional costs for its restoration, explained US Marshals Service in Manhattan asset forfeiture Michael Case while describing such cases in general.

Peter Tol, the maker of the piano, had expressed regret at being an unwitting recipient of funds intended for the “normal people of Malaysia”.

“I don't like it... It is not my way of life,” he said.

The transparent grand piano is one of several lavish purchases Low had made with funds from 1MDB, which include paintings by Basquiat, Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso; over a dozen luxury properties in New York, California and London, as well as the US$250 million (RM1.04 billion) superyacht Equanimity and the US$35 million (RM145 million) Bombardier jet.

The recovery of these assets involved six US federal agencies and several agents and contractors that span Switzerland, Luxembourg and Malaysia, in what is one of the biggest international kleptocracy cases ever handled by the US.

However, Low's disappearance and the ownership of these assets by trusts have hampered efforts to retrieve them.