How Tedy Teow, the Malaysian fraudster dubbed ‘Jho Low 2’, allegedly swindled millions

Teow’s MBI Group duped thousands with fake high-return investments, leading to his extradition to China on massive fraud charges

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China has extradited from Thailand Tedy Teow, a Malaysian fugitive businessman accused of leading a fraud syndicate in a case involving more than 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion). Photo: CCTV

Published: 3:18pm, 29 Aug 2024Updated: 12:58am, 30 Aug 2024

Slick conferences, new offices and tales of riches spun from smart investments were enough to persuade Randy Ang to move a five-figure sum from his savings into a high return financial product hawked by MBI Group International – the vehicle of prolific Malaysian con man Tedy Teow.

Ang, now 35, from Kuala Lumpur, handed over the sum – which he did not want to specify to This Week in Asia – to an investment agent representing MBI in 2016. It was only their second meeting.

At the time, he had no way to know he had just joined thousands of other Malaysians ploughing money into pyramid schemes, spanning property to cryptocurrency, that would lose them millions of ringgit.

The man behind MBI Group, Tedy Teow Wooi Huat, was extradited to China by Thai authorities last week on charges that he had masterminded a fraud empire that reeled in millions of victims across Asia.

The risks, Ang says, were carefully whitewashed by sales agents during an impressive investor conference organised by MBI, the company authorities in Malaysia and China say was behind billions of dollars of fraud.

Officials escorting Tedy Teow upon his extradition from Thailand. Photo: Ministry of Public Security

“I listened to the testimony from one of their top speakers at the conference, sharing how he made his money and went from owning a regular car to driving a Ferrari, going from a zero to hero,” Ang said. “I was just amazed at how they managed to invest to make a living.”