It’s been seven years since the Justice Department filed the largest forfeiture complaint in U.S. history, asserting that billions had been stolen from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund and spent in gratuitous fashion around the world — on penthouse apartments in New York, vast mansions in the most exclusive neighborhoods of Los Angeles, private jets, superyachts, A-list parties, Vegas gambling trips, artworks and even forays into Hollywood with the financing of The Wolf of Wall Street.
While efforts have been made to seize the assets acquired with the stolen loot — and there have been seismic anti-corruption trials in Kuala Lumpur — the man accused of being the mastermind of the 1MDB scandal, the flamboyant Malaysian businessman Jho Low, is still a fugitive. Many believe the individual, considered the most-wanted “white-collared criminal” on the planet, is in China, reportedly under house arrest in Shanghai.
In the new documentary Man on the Run, the 1MDb scandal and how a corrupt group of co-conspirators came together to pull off one of the biggest frauds in history is unravelled. From director Cassius Michael Kim (The Wonder List With Bill Weir), the film features exclusive interviews with FBI agents Charles W. O’Neal and David Smith, who were instrumental in building the case against 1MDB. It also includes the last filmed interview with former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak before he was sent to prison for his involvement in the scandal, as well as an interview with then-opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, now the current Prime Minister of Malaysia.
In the official trailer (below), premiered exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter, the celebrity obsession of Low is detailed, with interviewees explaining how the big-spender would use his allegedly ill-gotten wealth to become close with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton and Jamie Foxx (one claimed he “had a bit of a crush on Britney Spears” and paid her $1 million to pop out of a birthday cake).
And then there’s the question of his whereabouts. Razak, currently serving a 12-year sentence, is asked the crucial question about his former friend and advisor: “Where do think Jho Low is?”
Man on the Run is a The Smoking Section production in association with Evergreen Media, and is set for release in theaters in New York on Sept. 22 and in Los Angeles on Sept. 29.
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