Metro

Big-spending Malaysian is the mystery man of city club scene

A fleet of black Cadillac Escalades hums outside Chelsea hot spot Avenue — the A-list watering hole of such celebrities as Justin Timberlake and Lindsay Lohan.

As the car doors open, a dozen men emerge and a bouncer whisks them over the club’s threshold, past a group of shivering models behind the velvet rope.

“Who is it?” one of them wonders out loud. “Is it P. Diddy?”

But the man at the center of the entourage isn’t a celebrity. He isn’t even a mogul. He’s Taek Jho Low, a 20-something Wharton grad from Malaysia who has burned through hundreds of thousands of dollars at the city’s hottest nightspots in the last three months — and shows no signs of stopping.

The nightlife scene is abuzz with tales of this international man of mystery — who goes by the name Jho Low and whose chubby, bespectacled appearance hardly meets the image of a wealthy gadabout.

In September, during Fashion Week, sources said, Low helped rack up a $160,000 bar tab at Avenue, including several $900 bottles of Cristal champagne.

One month later, Lindsay Lohan was belatedly celebrating her 23rd birthday at downtown drinking den 1OAK when 23 bottles of Cristal suddenly appeared. They were reportedly paid for by a “mystery Malaysian,” who, sources claim, was Low.

At chic 27th Street hangout Pink Elephant, Low routinely spends $50,000 to $60,000, according to the club’s owner, David Sarner. One night, at the Pink Elephant outpost in Southampton, Low enjoyed himself so much that he kept the revelry going — all the way to Malaysia, Sarner said.

“He ended up flying eight of our [waitresses] to Malaysia for a party,” he added.

Strangely, for a man attracting so much attention, very little is known about Low.

According to his official biography, he currently serves as a group adviser of several international corporations and was appointed to the board of UBG Berhad, a financial-services group in Kuala Lumpur, last year.

But when The Post interviewed Malaysian experts at such think tank as the Council on Foreign Relations, no one had ever heard of Low.

According to inside sources, Low lives at a $100,000-a-month apartment in the Park Imperial, on West 56th Street, home to James Bond actor Daniel Craig and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs — and he won’t go anywhere, not even on the elevator, without at least one bodyguard.

Some of Low’s entourage of eight to 12 people also reside in two other apartments at the Park Imperial — a $30,000-a-month pad and a 2,200-square-foot loft with Central Park views that costs $20,000 a month, according to real-estate investor Michael Hirtenstein, who used to live in the latter.

“Diddy lived right below me, and that’s where his [Low’s] security staff is now,” Hirtenstein said. “I know because I tried getting a friend in there. My friend offered $17,000; Jho Low came in with $20,000.”

But Low’s flashy ways during a time of economic hardship have appalled Park Imperial residents, who complain that the building’s entire staff acts like his personal servants. Every day, shopping bags get delivered from the city’s biggest stores, such as Bergdorf Goodman.

And Low’s caravan of Escalades constantly crowds the area outside the building, several sources said.

“It used to be that when you saw the Cadillac Escalades outside, you knew Sean [Combs] was in town. Now it’s this guy,” said one amused neighbor.

Speculation is brewing over where Low is getting his money from. One inside observer said, “Nobody spends their own money like that. It’s just weird.”

Low did not respond to e-mails for comment, and his spokesman David Tan refused to reveal his boss’ birthday or background.

“Mr. Low is currently in the USA for holiday and has on several occasions stayed in New York City with his friend[s],” Tan said via e-mail. “He, however, has not rented any property or purchased any property in New York City. Mr. Low did not spend $160,000 at Avenue on one night during Fashion Week.”

Indeed, Low’s name is not attached to the real-estate deals sources say he is involved in.

A spokesperson for Avenue confirmed Low helped rack up a $160,000 bill in September but added: “The tab was picked up by a friend of [Low’s] from Kuwait.”

That friend is international man about town Hamad Alwazzan, who also lives at the Park Imperial, according to an e-mail he sent to The Post.

In the e-mail, Alwazzan claims it is he, not Low, who’s the big spender in town.

“I have been on holiday in New York since August 2009 and grown quite fond of the city,” Alwazzan wrote. “I am especially fond of investment opportunities in real estate, as well as the food, quality of life, and lifestyle.”

As for the $160,000 bar tab, he wrote: “[It] was to celebrate the engagement of a close personal friend to his longtime girlfriend, which was jointly hosted by myself and 19 other close friends. I don’t have an exact breakdown of the cost, but it was a mixture of entertainment, food and drinks — and it happened to be during Fashion Week.”

But while Low clearly prefers to stay under the radar, he is splurging at a rate that’s getting noticed all over the city. According to an inside source, Low recently bought at least six exclusive memberships, for $300,000, at an upscale club in Midtown.

And just this month, sources said, Low celebrated his birthday at a lavish bash in Las Vegas — where Megan Fox was reportedly flown in to party with him and his entourage. The actress’ Fox’s publicist could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Additional reporting by Annie Karni