In early 2010, a young Malaysian financier named Jho Low began making some very expensive real estate deals in the United States. First, a shell company connected to Mr. Low, famous back home for partying with the likes of Paris Hilton , purchased a $23.98 million apartment in the Park Laurel condominiums in Manhattan. Three years later, that shell company sold the condo to another shell company, this one controlled by someone even more prominent in Malaysia: the film-producing stepson of the prime minister . A similar transaction was playing out on the other side of the country. Mr. Low bought a contemporary mansion in Beverly Hills for $17.5 million, then turned around and sold it, once again to the prime minister’s stepson. ( Read a summary of this article in Malay .) Mr. Low also went shopping at the Time Warner Center condominiums overlooking Central Park. He toured a 76th-floor penthouse, once home to the celebrity couple Jay Z and Beyoncé, then in early 2011 used yet another shell company to buy it for $30.55 million, one of the highest prices ever in the building. At the time, Mr. Low said he represented a group of investors, according to…