For years, corrupt rulers have been looting their states; Prime Minister Najib Razak was just the latest in a line that stretches back decades—to the leaders overthrown in the Arab Spring of 2011, and, even further, to Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Suharto of Indonesia, and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. It’s tempting to see this kind of corruption as a disease afflicting poor countries, where kleptocrats live in splendor at the expense of their long-suffering populations. But Jho Low’s crime is a modern take on that old story. The money he took, by and large, was not stolen directly from
...more
