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Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t unique among wealthy Hollywood A-listers who learn to expect that people and businesses will shower them with free designer clothes, cars, travel and other luxury items. When you’re a star like DiCaprio, people want to do anything to be your friend, work with you or bask in your fame.
But the Academy Award-winning actor is unique in that his willingness to accept pricey gifts and his desire to finance his 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” has drawn scrutiny from federal investigators probing an international, multibillion-dollar fraud and money-laundering scheme.
Actually, the probe by the U.S. Justice Department into the so-called 1MDB scandal also has ensnared an assortment of other prominent people: supermodel Miranda Kerr, a former member of the Fugees, and Elliott Broidy, a prominent fundraiser for President Donald Trump, the Washington Post reported.
The investigation led to DiCaprio, 44, being called in recent months to give secret testimony before a Washington, D.C., grand jury about his friendship with fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, the Post reported last week.
Of course, DiCaprio’s testimony didn’t turn out to be so secret — it was leaked to the Post and other outlets.
Federal prosecutors say that DiCaprio is not a target of the probe, according to the Post. They just hope he can shed light on how Low, 37, allegedly stole and laundered billions of dollars from the Malaysian government investment fund 1MDB.
Low, who is said to be hiding in China, allegedly used the stolen money to finance a high-flying, playboy lifestyle. He liked to shower A-listers, including DiCaprio, Kerr and Kim Kardashian, with gifts, parties, gambling trips to Las Vegas and Atlantic City and offers to finance their creative and business endeavors.
Low reportedly romanced Kerr, now the wife of billionaire Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, with an estimated $8 million in diamonds, a 31st birthday party on a yacht on the Hudson River and promises to invest in her cosmetics company. For Kardashian’s second marriage — in 2011 marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries — Low reportedly presented the bride and groom with a white, $325,000 Ferrari.
As for DiCaprio, the Post and other outlets have reported that Low courted “The Revenant” actor’s friendship by allowing him to gamble on his tab at the Venetian casino in Las Vegas. Low also gave DiCaprio artwork, including a Picasso painting valued at $3.2 million, and the Oscar statuette presented to Marlon Brando when he won best actor for “On the Waterfront” in 1954.
Perhaps mostly likely to win DiCaprio’s favor: Low helped the actor get funding for “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the Post reported. DiCaprio thanked Low when he accepted a Golden Globe for his role in the film, which was directed by Martin Scorsese.
DiCaprio said to Low and other members of the production team: “Thank you for not only being collaborators but taking a risk on this movie.”
Two years later, prosecutors moved to seize proceeds from the film, which they alleged was financed in part with stolen funds funneled to a production company co-founded by Riza Shahriz bin Abdul Aziz, the stepson of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, the Post said. Aziz was among those DiCaprio thanked in his Golden Globes speech.
In addition to having to testify against Low, DiCaprio also has had to relinquish all gifts given to him by his friend, including the Brando Oscar and the Picasso painting, The Wrap reported in December.
Representatives for DiCaprio told The Wrap that the painting and other gifts from Low were not intended for the actor’s own use but for a charity auction to benefit the actor’s environmental foundation. They also said DiCaprio had reached out to the Justice Department to negotiate the return of the items, the Wrap said.
DiCaprio’s spokesman has previously said the actor was cooperating with the investigation and was “supportive of all efforts to assure that justice is done in this matter,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
As for some of the other prominent names involved in the Low case, prosecutors have recently alleged 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, the Post reported. Acting on Low’s behalf, Michel hired an investment firm owned by Broidy to press the Trump administration to end the investigation, the Post added.
Broidy is a Los Angeles businessman, veteran Republican fundraiser and former deputy finance chairman for the Republican National Committee who helped convince major donors to support Trump’s presidential campaign. Investigators are looking into whether Michel and Broidy have violated any laws.
Broidy, who pleaded guilty in 2009 in an unrelated pension fund bribery case, also has attracted scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller for his business with foreign governments and individuals, the New York Times reported.
But Broidy also has attracted attention for matters related to Trump. He and Fox News host Sean Hannity were reported to be the only other clients of Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
The criminal investigation into Cohen led to revelations that the attorney arranged for a $1.6 million hush money payment to a former Playboy model who said she became pregnant by Broidy during an affair, the New York Times reported.
In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for hush money payments on behalf of Trump. Cohen admitted to violating campaign finance laws in making payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in order to buy their silence over their alleged affairs with Trump before the 2016 presidential election. Cohen also was convicted of tax evasion and lying to Congress.
