Leonardo DiCaprio testifies in 1MDB case in the US
FMT Reporters
-January 5, 2019 9:45 AM
Leonardo DiCaprio. (AFP pic)KUALA LUMPUR: Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio testified in secret before a grand jury in the US recently as part of the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) investigation into 1Malaysia Development Bhd transactions, the Washington Post reported today.
Quoting “people familiar with the case”, the report said prosecutors felt DiCaprio could provide useful insights about Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, who is alleged to have pilfered and laundered billions of dollars from 1MDB and then financed a lobbying campaign to end the investigation.
According to the report, DiCaprio is not a target of the probe.
As grand jury proceedings are secret, it is unclear what DiCaprio told grand jurors. Also unclear, the Washington Post report said, was how the authorities got him into and out of the federal courthouse without drawing notice.
When contacted by the Washington Post, a DoJ spokesman and a representative for DiCaprio declined to comment.
In the past, DiCaprio’s spokesman had said he was cooperating with the probe and was “entirely supportive of all efforts to assure that justice is done in this matter.”
The fugitive Low has been charged in absentia in Malaysia over the 1MDB scandal and a warrant of arrest has been issued against him.
Low was also charged in the federal court in New York late last year in connection with theft and money laundering.
The Washington Post said prosecutors had pursued related cases concerning ex-Goldman Sachs bankers they allege were involved in laundering money and a DoJ employee who admitted to helping the lobbying campaign.
According to the report, prosecutors recently alleged in court papers that former Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was involved in setting up accounts to make payments for Low’s lobbying effort to kill the investigation and that Michel, acting as an intermediary for Low, hired the owner of an investment firm to press the case with the Trump administration.
The lobbying effort was unsuccessful.
Prosecutors have alleged in court papers that Low cosied up to DiCaprio, allowing the actor to gamble on his tab at the Venetian casino in Las Vegas, giving him artwork and helping him get funding for the hit movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Prosecutors have said that former prime minister Najib Razak’s stepson Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz had introduced Low to DiCaprio. Najib has been charged in Malaysia over 1MDB-related cases.
In 2016, prosecutors moved to seize assets, including proceeds from the film, which they alleged were financed in part with stolen funds routed to a production company co-founded by Riza. The report noted that DiCaprio had thanked Low by name in accepting a Golden Globe for his role in the film.
Prosecutors later moved to seize from DiCaprio a Picasso painting they said was purchased with US$3.2 million in stolen funds and given to DiCaprio by an associate of Low’s
