7/20/16, "DOJ: Wolf of Wall Street' Funded With Stolen Money," Reuters, Pete Williams
"The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that an economic
development fund meant to benefit Malaysia was plundered by its
overseers, who bought expensive art, real estate, a jet for themselves
and even financed a hit movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street."
"This is a case where life imitated art," said assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell.
The film, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, told the story of a crooked stock trader. In newly disclosed court filings, the U.S. said
officials of the fund, known as 1MDB, diverted $3.5 billion intended for
Malaysian economic development from 2009 through 2015. The Justice
Department sought court action to seize roughly $1 billion of that
money, the amount it said was laundered through American banks and
therefore subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the diverted
billions were used by the fund officials, their relatives and
associates, "to purchase a range of assets, including high-end real
estate in New York and Los Angeles, artworks by Vincent Van Gogh and
Claude Monet, and a jet aircraft."
U.S. officials said the jet cost $35 million and
the real estate included a house in Beverly Hills and a penthouse in
New York City. Some of the money, they said, was used to cover gambling
debts at Las Vegas casinos.
"The Malaysian people were defrauded on an enormous scale," said the FBI's deputy director, Andrew McCabe.
Among those named in court documents was Riza
Shahriz Bin Abdul Aziz, who co-founded Red Granite Pictures, a Hollywood
movie production company. He is the stepson of Malaysia's prime
minister, Najib Razak.
The Justice Department said Red Granite used
more than $100 million stolen from the economic development fund to
finance "The Wolf of Wall Street."
"Neither 1MDB nor the people of Malaysia ever
saw a penny of profit from the film, or from any other investments made
with money diverted," Caldwell said."
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