DiCaprio returns laundered ‘loot’

LOS ANGELES— Actor Leonardo DiCaprio had turned over an Oscar statuette won by Marlon Brando to US investigators probing alleged money laundering by a state-owned Malaysian investment fund. DiCaprio had also initiated the return of other items, gifts for a charity auction from Malaysia’s 1MDB wealth fund.

LOS ANGELES— Actor Leonardo DiCaprio had turned over an Oscar statuette won by Marlon Brando to US investigators probing alleged money laundering by a state-owned Malaysian investment fund, his representatives said on Thursday.

DiCaprio had also initiated the return of other, unidentified items that the actor said he accepted as gifts for a charity auction and which originated from people connected to Malaysia’s 1MDB wealth fund, they said in a statement.

In July last year, Hollywood production company Red Granite was accused in a US civil lawsuit of using $100 million that prosecutors said had been laundered from the 1MDB fund to finance DiCaprio’s 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” in which he starred.

DiCaprio said in October that he was cooperating with the probe and would return any gifts or donations if they were found to be from questionable sources.

“Mr. DiCaprio initiated return of these items, which were received and accepted by him for the purpose of being included in an annual charity auction to benefit his eponymous foundation,” Thursday’s statement said.

“He has also returned an Oscar originally won by Marlon Brando, which was given to Mr. DiCaprio as a set gift by Red Granite to thank him for his work on ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’” the statement added.

Picasso, Basquiat

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, set up in 1988, supports a range of environmental projects.

In a new filing on Thursday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to seize artwork by Picasso and Basquiat that it said had been purchased with laundered Malaysian money and gifted to DiCaprio by associates of Red Granite.

It was not clear from DiCaprio’s statement whether he had already returned the two paintings and a Diane Arbus photograph that was also listed in the DOJ legal filing.

Thursday’s filing also sought to seize the assets of two other Red Granite produced films which investigators alleged were financed by money from the 1MDB fund—the 2014 comedy “Dumb and Dumber To” starring Jim Carrey and 2015 comedy “Daddy’s Home” starring Will Ferrell.

Los Angeles-based Red Granite Pictures said in a statement on Thursday that it was “actively engaged in discussions with the justice department aimed at resolving these civil cases and is fully cooperating.”

Representatives of Carrey and Ferrell did not immediate- ly return calls for comment.

US authorities on Thursday moved to seize another $540 million in assets allegedly stolen in Malaysia’s 1MDB fraud and used to fund extravagant spending.

$4.5B in laundered money

The move compounded court cases launched last year in which Washington sought to confiscate more than $1 billion allegedly embezzled by businessmen with political connections in Malaysia—bringing the total amount US officials said was stolen to $4.5 billion.

The scandal has rocked the Malaysian governing class, exposing Prime Minister Najib Razak to allegations of corruption and of personally profiting from the alleged theft, which he has denied.

1MDB is a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund created in 2009.

“Today’s complaints reveal another chapter of this multiyear, multibillion-dollar fraud scheme,” said acting US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco in a statement.

“This money financed the lavish lifestyles of the alleged coconspirators at the expense and detriment of the Malaysian people,” he said.

Prosecutors have identified another $540 million of the assets that can be seized, prose- cutors said on Thursday.

The suits said the funds were used for investments such as the Hollywood film “The Wolf of Wall Street”—ironically about financial crimes by wealthy businessmen—as well as highend real estate in London, New York and Beverly Hills.

High living

In court papers filed on Thursday in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said that in 2014, the Malaysian businessman Jho Low stole $850 million from funds borrowed from a syndicate of banks, ostensibly meant to repay bonds issued in a prior phase of the embezzlement scheme.

Instead, however, the money went to purchase a $261 million, 91-meter yacht that has a helipad, gym, cinema and pool.

Conspirators also bought a $3.2-million work by Picasso and a $9.2-million Basquiat as well as investing in other Hollywood films like the comedy “Dumb and Dumber To,” according to the US Justice Department. Low has also denied wrongdoing.

The justice department in 2010 launched the “Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative” to seize the ill-gotten gains of foreign officials which pass through the American financial system and, if possible, return them to the victims of fraud.