Here’s how a drinking buddy is landing Leonardo DiCaprio into hot water and may cost the actor millions.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s enviro-activist foundation, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department over its involvement with Malaysia’s massive $3.5 billion embezzlement scandal.
It is alleged by the Justice Department that millions of the embezzled Malaysian loot was used to bankroll DiCaprio’s The Wolf of Wall Street.
Now, the Feds want the movie’s profits.
The U.S. federal lawsuit lays claim to “any rights to profits, royalties and distribution proceeds” from “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The 2013 film about fraud and greed, directed by Martin Scorcese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, made $392 million, according to comScore.
There had long been concerns that the movie budget, which topped $100 million, came from a Hollywood production company no one had ever heard about: Red Granite Pictures. Investigators from different government agencies suspected that the money came from 1MDB.
DeCaprio established his foundation in 1998 with “the mission of protecting the world’s last wild places.”
However, it is not set up as a typical non-profit.
Instead, according to the Hollywood Reporter, it is “a donor-advised fund (DAF) attached to the California Community Foundation, which is a nonprofit, the LDF therefore is not required to file itemized public disclosures about its own revenue, expenditures and disbursements.”
“It’s difficult to characterize the giving of the DiCaprio Foundation because its status as part of the CCF makes it impossible to look at its finances,” industry trade journal Inside Philanthropy noted in 2015.
While it may have a “noble” mission, DiCaprio’s foundation events are noted for being star-studded mega parties attended by the rich and famous.
One of those attendees was 35-year old Jho Low who is one of the central characters of the $3.5 billion embezzlement scheme.
Authorities believe Mr. Low spent a third of the embezzled money by himself.
According to the Telegraph UK:
Low is said to have helped the LDF [the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation] by buying marked-up champagne bottles at the actor’s birthday party in 2013 and paying $1.1million for art at an LDF-funding Christie’s auction.
He’s also said to have donated a Lichtenstein sculpture worth $700,000 to the LDF for another auction.
It also alleges that millions more were funnelled [sic] to Riza Aziz, the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister whose production company Red Granite Pictures bankrolled DiCaprio’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.
Whether or not DiCaprio and his will ultimately have to forfeit all, or just some of the moneys made through the embezzlement scheme remains to be seen.
Although DiCaprio and his foundation are being asked to give the moneys back, so far, they are not commenting.
Here is DiCaprio calling for an end to ‘climate change’ at the Mayor’s summit in Paris
Image credit: Youtube.
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