Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cameo Role in 1MDB’s Growing Drama

Leonardo DiCaprio, recent Oscar winner, has been implicated in the massive Malaysian 1MDB corruption case. 1MDB, an investment company owned by the Malaysia government was created by the current PM Najib in 2009 to finance projects for economic development. Investigations allege that roughly $3.5 billion from 1MDB have been misappropriated for expenses that include a jet, luxury real estate and financial support for the company, Red Granite. DiCaprio’s recent film, The Wolf of Wall Street was produced by the company Red Granite, of whom the chairman is Riza Aziz, the stepson of PM Najib. Some articles also allege that some of the funds from 1MDB were used for weekends in Las Vegas with DiCaprio, Aziz and others, and also were accepted as donations by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

I’ve noticed that articles from Asia Correspondent or Malaysiakini about the subject are very careful about the accusations especially those in relation to DiCaprio. One excerpt of the Malaysiakini article uses “alleged” in some form, every time it references DiCaprio, while there is less ambiguity about the role of Aziz or Najib. The New Straits Times was surprisingly quiet on the whole affair, with only one direct article about it while other Malay news sources such as Free Malaysia Today are more condemning, imploring Leonardo DiCaprio to “return the dirty money”. Certain western-centric news sources like the WSJ focused more on the role of US prosecutors in the investigation and persecution of the corruption, while “local opposition” is never really clarified.

https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/07/malaysia-us-1-billion-siphoned/
http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/07/159656/us-moves-seize-us1b-assets-msi...
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/355557#ixzz4Leu9lSHw
http://www.wsj.com/articles/leo-dicaprios-cameo-role-in-1mdbs-growing-dr...