1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) may have received flak for lack of transparency, but critics may not be able to say that it has no checks and balances.

According to its website, 1MDB has a “triple-tier” corporate governance structure - the board of advisers, board of directors and senior management.

Sitting on top of the pile is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is chairperson for the board of advisers.

But before there was 1MDB, there was the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA). And behind the fruition of TIA, was the close relationship between the Terengganu Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, who was the Agong then, and a young man who will later become a household name.

In his early thirties, wheeler-dealer Taek Jho Low is perhaps most popularly known for hitting the New York gossip rags after splashing a fortune on cases of Louis Roedre Cristal with celebrities, including heiress Paris Hilton.

Hilton, however, was not the only celebrity he rubbed shoulders with. He claims to be friends with Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx - the latter of whom reportedly sang a ‘flirty’ number with the prime minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor ( left ), at an event in the Big Apple.

It is unclear if the New York party scene was where Rosmah and Low got close. But the Penang born-whiz kid’s connections with the wealthy worldwide were forged even before Rosmah started calling herself the “First Lady of Malaysia”.

Low - or J Low, as he was at one point referred to - is son to founder of engineering company MWE Larry Low. Like most children of the rich in Malaysia, he was packed off to a top UK boarding school in his teens.

Tight friends from the Arab world

It is at Harrow, and later Wharton’s School of Business that baby-faced Low would became tight friends among people with deep pockets from the Arab world.

The combination of wealthy friends and a well-to-do family landed Low with capital of US$25 million - seed money for his very own private equity fund, the Wyndon Group.

Some have speculated that these are among Low’s business associates who picked up the RM5 billion bonds issued by TIA, much to the ire of deprived local bankers.

1MDB has never disclosed who the debt papers went to. It is unclear what Low got for lining up the investors.    

On 1MDB's part, it said that Low's role in 1MDB is "zero". It stressed that 1MDB's dealings with foreign investors are on a government-to-government level without intermediaries.

One of Low's friends, however, went further than simply buying the debt papers.

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