UPDATE 1-Jho Low charged for misusing funds from Malaysian investment fund

The US Justice Department on Thursday charged a fugitive Malaysian financier in a money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions of dollars from a Malaysian investment fund created to promote economic development projects in that country.

The three-count indictment charges Low Taek Jho, who is also known as Jho Low, of misappropriating money from the state-owned fund and using it to bribe foreign officials and to pay for the luxury real estate, art and jewellery in the US and to fund Hollywood movies, including "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Also charged was a Goldman Sachs banker, Tim Leissner, who pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and to conspiring to violate foreign bribery laws. Another bank official, Ng Chong Hwa, 51, also known as Roger Ng, was arrested earlier Thursday in Malaysia, prosecutors said.

A lawyer for Leissner did not return multiple messages Thursday.

The charges are the first arising from a global scandal over the epic corruption scandal at the state investment fund known as 1MDB. The Justice Department in 2016 moved to recover more than USD 1 billion that it said had been stolen, file a civil complaint that sought the forfeiture of property including a Manhattan penthouse, a Beverly Hills mansion, a luxury jet and paintings by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet.

(With inputs from agencies.)