1MDB: 4 Bugatti Hypercars Connected to Jho Low Seized In Germany

1MDB - a financial scandal involving billions of dollars embezzled, a head of state booted from office and imprisoned and, more recently, four of the world's rarest hypercars.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock since 2015, you’d probably know how big a deal the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal is – both locally and internationally.

In brief, the 1MDB scandal saw billions of dollars embezzled from a sovereign wealth fund set up by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and alleged collaborator Jho Low (Low Take Jho). The former has since been forced out of office and is currently serving a prison sentence, whilst the latter is still at large and hiding as a fugitive. 

Now, the scandal’s trail continues in Germany involving a selection of hypercars. News reports online have surfaced earlier this week detailing that German authorities seized no less than four (4) Bugatti Veyron hypercars through a recent raid in Munich in connection to the scandal.

The cars seized weren’t your run-of-the-mill Veyorn models either. Specifically, German authorities seized the Rembrant, Black Bess, Jean-Pierre Wimille, and Meo Constantini editions of the Veyron, all of which form part of the 18-unit ‘Les Legendes de Bugatti’ collection series.

Clockwise: The units seized by German authorities were the Black Bess, Meo Constantini, Rembrandt, and Jean-Pierre Wimille editions of the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse-based 'Les legendes de Bugatti' collection. (Image source: Wikipedia)

Each edition saw just three examples built, each costing no less than US$3 million (approx. RM14.31 million) when new. The values of each, let alone the entire collection, is much trickier to gauge today, though we reckon neither will fetch figures lower than their initial retail prices mentioned should they be flogged in the open market.

Said special units are all based on the Grand Sport Vitesse variant of the Bugatti Veyron hypercar released between 2012 and 2015. In this form, the record-breaking Veyron packed an uprated version of its signature 8.0-litre W16 quad-turbo powertrain, serving up a whopping 1,183 HP and 1,500 NM. Altogether, said powertrain enabled 0-100 KM/H in just 2.6 seconds and a 375 KM/H top speed. 

The raid reportedly saw at least a dozen officers and investigators from the German police’s white-collar crime division involved. German authorities remain tight-lipped on the matter and have yet to divulge details as to who actually owns this quartet of hypercars seized.

All four seized specials are based on the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse - an open-top speedster version of the Veyron. It packs 1,183 Hp and 1,500 NM to enable 0-100 KM/H in 2.6 secs and a375 KM/H top speed.

However, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) reportedly confirmed earlier today that the seized hypercars in Germany are linked to their on-going 1MDB investigations. The commission adds that it suspects Jho Low had purchased at least one of said foursome using embezzled 1MDB funds.

Furthermore, local daily Utusan Malaysia cited an anonymous source saying that that other two units seized were linked to Khadem Al Qubaisi, former head of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), and Mohamed Badawy Al-Husseiny, former CEO of Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments PJS. The same source adds all individuals named have been “under the MACC’s radar.” 

The MACC did not disclose their plans for the seized hypercars, so their fate is up for debate at this point. Though prior cases of seizures related to this type of crime that didn’t involved Germany saw owners able to ship a car out of the country, such a scenario won’t be the case here.