Leonardo DiCaprio, who premiered his new #Climate Change documentary Before the Flood in London, has been asked to step down from his position at the United Nations and return the millions of dollars allegedly stolen from the Malaysian people and channeled into his environmental foundation.
The Swiss rainforest charity Bruno Manser Fund, which fights for the conservation of tropical rainforests and the rights of Malaysian rainforest dwellers, is pressuring the actor to step down and return the money. At a news conference over the weekend, the Fund’s director said the financial scandal DiCaprio’s embroiled in makes him unfit to be a U.N. Messenger of Peace for climate change.
DiCaprio is purported to have gotten millions of embezzled dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, called 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, for starring in and producing The Wolf of Wall Street, a film about an unscrupulous Wall Street trader. The Department of Justice (DOJ) says the movie was funded in part by stolen Malaysian money routed to shell companies like Red Granite, which was co-founded by Riza Aziz, the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister. Red Granite co-produced The Wolf of Wall Street movie.
Another player is Jho Low, a Malaysian businessman, a person of interest by the DOJ and Malaysian authorities. Low and his cohorts allegedly used the money to finance movies, purchase high-end properties in the U.S., and throw lavish fundraisers for Hollywood’s elite.
