Reports have surfaced stating that Jho Low obtained a Cypriot passport back in 2015. We discuss what this means for the Malaysian government's attempt at bringing him back to the country.

After the publication of this podcast, BFM received the following note from Alina Morais, Head of Public Relations (South-East Asia) of Henley and Partners. 

"While we are aware of the numerous misleading articles that have mentioned Henley & Partners in connection to Jho Low, we would like to state that Henley & Partners was not approached to provide comment on the story by any media organisation in advance. We have not therefore had the opportunity to engage with the articles or the “evidence” presented, which has been taken entirely out of context to fit a narrative that does not represent an objective assessment of the situation.

Contrary to what has been stated in multiple articles, Mr Low has never been a citizenship client of Henley & Partners. Whilst he approached Henley & Partners’ in 2015, the firm declined to accept Mr. Low as a client. It is therefore false to state that “Henley & Partners helped Jho Low acquire Cypriot citizenship.

Over the past twenty years, Henley & Partners has invested significant time and capital in creating a corporate structure that is wedded to best practice governance and the highest levels of due diligence, even before passing a client over to the consideration of a sovereign state. It is also important to note in the context of the apparent acquisition of Cyprus citizenship by Mr Low as well as in all other cases, that it is the Government of Cyprus which is responsible for the processing and approval of applications for citizenship. Moreover, governments are in a position to annul any citizenships granted under their programmes if there has been any misrepresentation by applicants.

Secondly, we wish to make it very clear that Henley & Partners does not “own Cambridge Analytica”. We do not, and have never had, any formal working relationship with Cambridge Analytica or its parent company, Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL Group). We believe that the interaction between our firm and Cambridge Analytica/SCL has been consistently, and at times deliberately, misrepresented by certain parties. You can read our full statement on that here."

Produced by: Loo Juosie, Kelvin Yee

Presented by: Kelvin Yee, Aiman Rashad, Kam Raslan

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Categories:  Politics,  Law and Legal Matters,  Business Analysis,  Social Issues

Tags:  Evening Edition,  Jho Low,  1MDB,  Cyprus,  passport,  golden visas,  citizenship by investment,