He dined with Leonardo di Caprio, bought diamonds for supermodel Miranda Kerr, and even financed the film production company that made the "Wolf of Wall Street." He went into business with Gulf royals and real estate moguls from Abu Dhabi. Low's high-flying ways even brought him into alleged criminal conspiracies with an American rapper and landed him on the receiving end of a Justice Department indictment for laundering billions. Some of the business deals, prosecutors said, were part of an expansive effort to launder misappropriated public funds.

Along the way, Low found an ally in Sheikh Sabah Jaber al-Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah, a well-connected member of Kuwait's royal family.