Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

by Tom Wright

Billionaires are today’s royalty, and like a modern-day Louis XIV, Low thrived at being the center of orchestrated formality, each of his whims met immediately, whether by boat staff, private bankers, or art dealers. A few days earlier, Low had taken delivery from Lorraine Schwartz of a matching set of jewelry, comprising diamond earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, and a ring. A few weeks earlier, he’d sent Schwartz a picture of Kerr wearing Tiffany jewelry to give her an idea of the model’s taste. Over the next ten days on the boat, as it sailed around Italy and to the Greek island of Corfu, Low gave the various pieces of jewelry to Kerr over elaborate set dinners. Yet Low was straining to pay for all this opulence. Although some $5 billion had come out of 1MDB, the scheme had so many tendrils—so many payments to conspirators and business partners, and to keep up a billionaire’s lifestyle—he was often hustling for cash. Recently, he had hired U.S. public relations firm Edelman to help counter the growing number of negative press stories about him, and he would later employ Schillings, the British reputation consultancy. Edelman’s services were costing him as much as $100,000 some months.

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