The Wolf of Wall Street and those involved with the movie raised their collectively ugly head yet again. It seems fitting that a movie based upon of the great Wall Street scams (even if it was Long Island rather than Wall Street) is mired in allegations of another type of fraud. This time it involves the money that was used to invest in the film and its provenance. Allegations laid out in the Justice Department forfeiture claims around the looted Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, set forth that monies used to finance the film may have been illegally derived from the fund.
The allegations involve the steps-son of the Malaysian Prime Minister, Riza Aziz, and his film production company, Red Granite Pictures. The United States has alleged the monies Red Granite put up came from the fund and through a family friend of Aziz, Jho Low; who was also named in the forfeiture complaint. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, “Mr. Aziz and Red Granite have denied any wrongdoing and said they believed the funding they received was from a legitimate business partner in the Middle East.”
