How Jho Low Pays for Rosmah's Shopping Sprees - EXPOSE! | Sarawak Report

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How Jho Low Pays for Rosmah's Shopping Sprees -EXPOSE!27 Jul 2015

Fancy coloured diamonds from New Yorks Louis Glick area particular favourite of RosmahsSarawak Report has continued its enquiries into Rosmah Mansors financial links with the controversialbusinessman Jho Low, whose company siphoned nearly USD2 billion from the 1MDB PetroSaudi joint venture in



2009.

Despite earlier denials, Sarawak Report has now accessed documents and emails, which detail how Jho Low hasprovided payments for millions of dollars worth of diamonds purchased by the Prime Ministers wife.Payments were done through Hong Kong, using an account belonging to a Jho Low owned company namedButamba Investments Limited at the British bank RBS Coutts branch in Singapore.The system, according to people who have sold to Rosmah, is generally for Jho Low to pay an intermediary, whothen pays the jeweller.

Natasha MirpuriPreviously this intermediary was Deepak Jaikishan, who was once a trusted agent of Mansors, but who later wentpublic about his role in silencing a witness in the Altantuya murder case.Currently, the intermediary is confirmed to be the Singaporean dress designer Natasha Mirpuri, who now workswith her husband Haresh Mirpuri as the fixer for all Rosmahs precious gem acquisitions.The Mirpuris are now familiar faces at the various world jewellery shows and they have created exclusive andprofitable links with several international jewellers.Sarawak Report has viewed numerous emails sent from and to Jho Low relating to such payments, which arenotoriously hard for jewellers to get settled.

Haresh Mirpuri now seenregularly with his wife atjewellery trade fairsIn one transfer, hundreds of thousands of dollars can be seen as having been paid directly from Jho Lows companyto a known jeweller to settle several items of diamond jewellery purchased by Rosmah.



Another set of emails and receipts detail how Jho Lows company paid a total of USD1 million to a Jakarta trader,Deepak Topandasani, towards purchases of Datins jewels.A further payment also of a million US dollars was directly made to an Asian subsidiary of one of the worlds mostexclusive jewellers in New York, Louis Glick. Again the money came from the same company owned by Low.Usually, however, traders say it is Mirpuri who controls all transactions and makes payments through Hong Kong. Jho Low in turn pays Mirpuri. One one occasion Low told an intermediary:

She [Rosmah] has to realise it takes time, its not so easy to just get the money quickly.The system is frustrating and uncertain say traders, who are often made to wait months to be paid for transactions. One Asia based jeweller told Sarawak Report:

It can take up to a year to get paid. You get paid in instalments indirectly. She has the money ofcourse, its just she is very controlling and likes to make people wait, she is a control freak.

Another, who is based in Europe, confirmed:We are waiting [on] their payments more than six months we sold end August/Septemeber and weare still waiting and it is a big amount. Its not like you can just phone her up. they are not buyinglike before, she was a good customer but she is changing now.

Given this further evidence gained from jewellers and insiders, Sarawak Report believes it is time Malaysias firstcouple explained their relationship with Jho Low, his role at 1MDB and where the money came from in order tofinance these enormously expensive purchases for the PMs wife?



Mixing business with family friendship. Jho Low (left) lines up with the Directors of PetroSaudi and Malaysiasfirst family at the outset of the 1MDB venture

Butamba Investments LimitedThe payments accessed by Sarawak Report show that one company regularly used by Jho Low to pay jewellersproviding gems for Rosamah was Butamba Investments Limited.



One million dollars transferred to Rose Trading, the Hong Kong arm of the New York jeweller Louis GlickJewellers say that more often than not Jho Low has funnelled funds more indirectly, through Deepak Jaikishan andNatasha Mirpuri.However, we have seen a number of receipts paid directly by Butamba Investments, all relating to jewellerypurchases by Rosmah, according to related emails. An email related to the above telegraphic transfer record read:

Fwd Payment advice to Rose Trading USD1,000,000From: Lee Julia (RBS Coutts, SG)To: [email protected] Mr Low,ThanksJulia Lee (attachment)

Separately, an email relating to the below receipt was forwarded from Jho Low and was titled Internal TransferFvg Deepak USD750,000:

Hi.please confirm receiving 1 million in total.. Datin is coming to Hong Kong. Do you want toshow her more goods?



Not to be confused with Deepak Jaikishan Jho Lows company Butamba transferred money to pay these jewellersin JakartaResearch into Jho Lows company Wynton Capital by Malaysias premier business paper The Edge has alreadyestablished that Butamba Investments Limited is the investment arm of Wynton Capital and was listed as ashareholder of Iskandar Holdings, the company which acquired a large chunk of controversial land in theGovernment backed venture that has destroyed much of Malaysias remaining mangrove forest and displacednative fishing communities.

Colours attract the magpie



spendersThe payments from Butamba Investments, along with the related emails from Jho and testimony from jewellers andinsiders, seal the link between Jho Low and highly expensive purchases of jewellery by the Prime Ministers wife.

Another email sent to Jho Low and a jeweller, who was awaiting settlement reads:As per conversation with Jho Low he has informed he will do the following. Your outstandingbalance is now US$1,650,000. Latest by 14th deposit US$750,000 and by end [of the month] depositUS$900,000 (500 +400)..

Jho Low himself wrote several emails direct to jewellers, which we have seen along the lines of the one quotedbelow:

From [email protected] [email protected]: Wire transfer for jewelleryI wish to confirm USDxxx,xxx is Ok. You should receive it late tonight or tomorrow [we have beenasked not to state the amount to protect the identities of the transactions]

It is therefore legitimate to ask why millions of dollars in payments went through this company owned by Low inorder to fund the purchases of diamonds and other jewels by Rosmah?

Coloured diamonds, favouredby Asias nouveau riche, iswhere the money is

Coutts BankButambas Singapore account with RBS Coutts is not the only connection between Jho Low and this private bank,regarded as one of the most exclusive in Britain.The Chairman of the bank is the son of a former Prime Minister, Earl Hume and its most famous customer is theQueen.

Earl Hume is also Patron of the British Malaysia Society, which seeks to build relationships between the businesselites of both countries.It was Coutts Banks Zurich branch in Switzerland, which controversially provided an account for another Jho Lowcompany named Good Star, which accepted a USD700 million payment from 1MDB at very short notice onOctober 2nd 2009.Evidence from the PetroSaudi data base, acquired by Sarawak Report and others from their former executive



Xavier Justo, shows that PetroSaudi Director Patrick Mahony had lied to 1MDBs legal team that Good Starbelonged to PetroSaudi, when in fact it was controlled by Jho Low.

Large pearl Rosmahs jewellery has raised eyebrowsAs Sarawak Report revealed in March, the youthful Low enjoyed an unofficial and secretive but extremelypowerful position at 1MDB, as it was understood he was the representative of the Prime Minister and FinanceMinister, who it has emerged had himself secretly obtained total authority over all spending and investments, as thesole shareholder and signatory of 1MDB.Emails show that there was concern expressed by compliance staff at Coutts about who the beneficial owner ofGood Star was on the day of the transaction on October 2nd 2009.

Yet, what would normally be regarded as a suspiciously large transaction was nevertheless completed in a matter ofa few hours on that day.The following year some USD530 million was then transferred on from the Good Star account at Coutts Zurich toan account beneficially owed by Jho Low at BSIs Singapore Branch.Jho Lows BSI accounts are now being investigated by the Singapore authorities as part of the wider investigationinto the missing billions from 1MDB.

The MirpurisA number of insiders have identified this Singapore couple as the key intermediaries for Rosmahs shoppingtherapy.The fashion designer became part of Rosmahs entourage around 2006, insiders say, and was extremelyingratiating. She started to replace Deepak and other intermediaries with retailers for Rosmah and has controlledthe First Ladys purchases for the past six years.Jewellers have complained to Sarawak Report that the situation has disadvantaged them because the Mirpurisdemand commission, or they will not make the introduction to this lucrative client.

The normal commission for white diamonds is about 2-3%, but Rosmah likes fancy diamonds[coloured]. Normally, an agent can hope for up to 10% for fancy diamonds, but the Mirpuris aredemanding 20-30%, a business insider told Sarawak Report.

Payments from Jho Low are obtained in dribs and drabs, usually through the Mirpuris.



However, one creditor told Sarawak Report that in one case the balance was settled directly in cash that Jho Lowpaid into their colleagues Hong Kong account through Coutts Singapore:

It was two lots of USD500,000. The bank accepted the cash straight into the account. No inwardremittance untraceable cos cash.

It has been observed that the Mirpuris, who appear to have no other occupation beyond servicing Rosmah, havebecome prosperous in recent years.

All the negotiations are done through them, not Jho Low. Its like you cant go direct to her, becauseif you do bad things will happen to you and you arent going to get paid They are the people rightnow between the payment and the jewellers remarked one.

Shopping therapy and Jho Lows family connectionRosmahs propensity to buy large has got out of control in recent years, particularly since she became First Lady,members of her entourage and sellers have confirmed to Sarawak Report.

People say Rosmah finds buying her therapy, this is her happiness let it go. But, she went crazy,overboard.. Its very easy to charge US$20 million for a pink diamond $20 million, $30 million, $40million, so its not hard to spend explains one.

However, the system of payments through third parties creates major problems say jewellers.

Most sales take place at her own residence where jewellers fly in from all over the world to hawk their wares. Ifthe transaction is small i.e. less than a million dollars, according to one trader, then the payment is fixed on thespot.

She has this aluminium cupboard that stretches the entire wall of one room and it is full of cash, alllined up in different denominations and amounts

However, the larger sums are less easy to settle and can involve several payments over many months.There is no up front, no one-time, nothing. Everything is spread out like over 6 months. There is noone-time payment made to one company theres always payments made in maybe 5 batches or 6batches, spread out over the year. This is why its quite open in the industry that a lot of people dontwant to do deals with her because it is very risky.. the margins are very high, but their risk is evenhigher

Rosmah is also known to be temperamental, say jewellers.



Purchases of less than a million can besettled at home in cash say jewellers.In one case a prominent Malaysian jeweller, who was driven to ask for a delayed payment had all the purchasedarticles thrown back at him, following which he was expelled from the house sale cancelled.Jho Lows involvement in the process comes from his trusted position as a longstanding family friend, introducedby Rosmahs son Riza who he met abroad while at school in the UK and then the US.

The Warton business school graduate has boasted in the past how he started his company Wynton Capital whilestill in college with a few million and he was taking a pivotal role as a trusted advisor, helping the family withtheir finances from his twenties say people who know the couple well.The question remains as to why the couple have so much money for Jho Low to assist in spending and apparentlymanaging?As numerous observers have pointed out neither inherited money of this magnitude and Najib has been a politicianearning an MPs and ministerial salary since his early twenties he joined parliament at the age of 23.Responses on this subject in recent months have ranged from inheritance, to the expected wealth of people in highpositions to wealth from a newly acquired son in law.

However, Jho Lows activities as a prominent investor linked to many of Malaysias public projects from a verytender age now clearly deserve explaining. Why is he paying for Rosmahs jewels and where did this money comefrom?

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How Jho Low Pays for Rosmah's Shopping Sprees - EXPOSE! | Sarawak Report