Dear Booksellers of the UK,
We understand that some bookshops have been in receipt of letters sent by reputation consultants on behalf of Jho Low or related parties, demanding that they not stock or sell the book about Low: Billion Dollar Whale: the man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the world. This is regrettable, but not surprising. In the book itself, the authors write about this pattern of intimidation, which began last year.
In the months leading up to the initial US publication of this book in September 2018, Schillings, a U.K.- based law firm representing Low, sent scores of legal letters to online retailers and brick-and-mortar bookstores in several countries, threatening them with defamation lawsuits if they made the book available for sale. Some bookstores were scared off, but most brushed off the unusual legal threat. A year after Billion Dollar Whale was first published, Schillings had not filed any legal actions, despite the book earning spots on bestseller lists in the United States and in Asia.
At Scribe, we wish to reassure all booksellers in the UK that they should not be deterred by these letters. Not only are the book’s allegations impeccably well-evidenced by its authors, both acclaimed journalists, many of them are now matters of the public record. The criminal indictment against Jho Low was made public by the U.S. Department of Justice in November 2018 charging him, among other things, with conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from the 1MDB investment fund in Malaysia. Criminal charges have likewise been brought against Low by the Attorney General’s Chambers in Malaysia. He is also wanted by Interpol. He has been the subject of ongoing news reports appearing in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Guardian, and other media, which report that Mr. Low is currently a fugitive.
For these reasons, we and our legal advisors believe that Billion Dollar Whale neither infringes the legal rights of Low or others charged with involvement in the financial scandal, nor is it vulnerable to actual legal challenge in our territories. And even were a baseless suit to be
brought, the Defamation Act 2013 provides that it is not booksellers who would be the rightful target, but the book’s authors and publishers. For more on this and the general background, see this article in The Guardian.
We should above all like to emphasise that despite the letters, not one lawsuit over the book has been brought (let alone won) since the book was published in the US last year. Hundreds of letters have been sent out, and yet we know of no retailer who has been subjected to an actual suit. Meanwhile, the book has sold over 200,000 copies.
Beyond merely being a gripping work of true crime, Billion Dollar Whale is an account of what happens when those with enormous power abuse it. We hope that the UK’s booksellers will join with us in facing down these unjustified attempts to prevent the public from reading it.
Sincerely,
Scribe Publications.
