‘Wolf of Wall Street’ makers in scam case
“The Wolf of Wall Street” traced the rise and fall of a real-life penny-stock swindler. Such scams are not uncommon, but the filmmakers managed to weave an epic tale of greed and debauchery.
It now appears they would have had a much grander story to tell had they turned the camera around. In a court filing released last week, the U.S. Justice Department accused the film’s producers and their associates of looting billions of dollars, corruption allegedly carried off with state sponsorship.
The case spans the globe, from banks in Singapore to penthouses in London to art auctions in New York.
At its center are two friends: Riza Aziz, CEO of Red Granite Pictures, and Jho Low, a 34-year-old financier. Though neither was criminally charged, a forfeiture complaint alleges that they used funds stolen from 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, a state-run development fund, to buy luxury real estate, fine art and jewelry and to pay gambling expenses.
But the allegations go well beyond Aziz and Low. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is alleged to have received hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds. (Aziz is Najib’s stepson.)
Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” is also caught up in the case. According to the complaint, he gambled with Low, Aziz and a Malaysian official in 2012 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. On that occasion, Low allegedly withdrew more than $1 million from funds that traced back to the Malaysia fund.