Our ‘favourite’ millionaire cavorts with Paris

So our ‘favourite’ Malaysian millionaire, Low Taek Jho, is making waves with Paris Hilton in … where else but Paris.

The celebrity gossip blogs and websites are full of it.

And to think young Jho Low only graduated in 2005 from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is believed to have established Middle-East connections.

Unfortunately, the frolic in France had a lousy start, as US Magazine reports here. Spoil sports.

AFP reports:

Paris Hilton caught with cannabis in handbag

AJACCIO, France — American socialite Paris Hilton was briefly held by police on the French island of Corsica after being caught with cannabis in her handbag, according to police sources.

Hilton was detained after arriving at the airport in Figari on a private jet from Paris on Friday.

Police found less than a gram of cannabis in her handbag, and released her soon afterwards without charge.

According to Corse-Matin newspaper, Hilton was travelling on the private jet with “people close to power in Malaysia”, and was due to travel by yacht to the luxury resort of Porto Cervo in Sardinia, Italy.

The incident is the American’s second brush with the law this month.

The 29-year-old was arrested during the World Cup in South Africa after a friend she was with took a joint to the Brazil-Netherlands quarter-final match in Port Elizabeth.

Low is a non-executive director of UBG Bhd. He is a representative of Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd and Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Investment Corporation (ADKM), a 53 per cent shareholder of UBG, whose chairman is Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, son of Taib Mahmud. (UBG has acquired a couple of CMS companies.)

Meanwhile, 1MDB is a “strategic development company” owned by the Malaysian government. The firm started life as the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), which was set up to manage Terengganu’s RM1 billion annual revenue from oil royalties under what would be the country’s second sovereign wealth fund. TIA was established with the approval of the federal and state governments in March 2009, around the time Najib was set to take over as PM.

One of the key figures who advised the King (who comes from Terengganu) to establish the TIA was Low Taek Jho, reported the Edge on 14 December 2009.

(Low was previously reported in the Malaysian Insider, which cited a Singapore Straits Times report, as being part of Najib’s inner circle and having close ties with Middle East investment funds.)

The original idea behind TIA was to create a sovereign wealth fund with RM5 billion from the federal government and another RM6 billion to come from Terengganu’s securitised future oil royalties receivable from Petronas.

After reported problems over who should control the fund, TIA was turned into a federal entity, 1MDB.

And now prized Sungai Besi land is to be transferred to 1MDB with possible Middle-Eastern interest, as the Star reports:

Wednesday May 19, 2010
Sg Besi land transfer to 1MDB
By ANITA GABRIEL
[email protected]

PETALING JAYA: The Government will transfer ownership of the prized land in Sungai Besi, currently the base for the Royal Malaysian Air Force, to 1Malaysia Development Bhd to be developed into a multi-billion ringgit commercial project, akin to an “urban renewal project,” said a source.

“It will basically be a left hand, right hand transfer. The Government has entrusted the land to 1MDB, which is a wholly-owned government agency, which will then be responsible for unlocking the value and maximing returns from the land.

“1MDB will manage the entire process and with the mandate as a land owner, it will woo foreign parties to contribute to foreign direct investments in the country,” said a source close to the plans.

It is believed that the massive project will be developed through a joint-venture with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which only recently signed a memorandum of understanding with 1MDB for a strategic real-estate development in the Klang Valley.

It was announced earlier that a joint committee would be set up by 1MDB and QIA to assess the viability of real-estate opportunities along with other investments. QIA has proposed to invest some US$5bil in these projects.

The Edge Property mentioned a Sungai Besi connection with Malton Bhd or Desmond Lim:

1MDB, Malton to redevelop RMAF base

By M Shanmugam of The Edge Financial Daily
Thursday, 13 May 2010 12:23
KUALA LUMPUR: The cabinet has agreed in principle to entrust the task of redeveloping the Sungai Besi Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base to a consortium of companies that include 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), sources say.

The other members of the consortium are Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) and Datuk Desmond Lim of Malton Bhd, they say. It cannot be ascertained if Malton or Lim, through his private company, has a stake in the consortium.

It is learnt that the mandate of the consortium is to develop the 162-hectare site into a multi-billion-ringgit Islamic financial centre. This is in line with the government’s plans to enhance Malaysia as a regional Islamic financial centre.

The sources say the government will also ink an agreement with the Qatar government that will commit an undertaking for major investments in Malaysia. The investments will be jointly undertaken with 1MDB and may likely include the redevelopment of the Sungai Besi RMAF base…