The Wolf Of Wall Street Trouble!
In the most recent of Hollywood scandals, it turns out that The Wolf of Wall Street was financed by stolen money. But don’t worry, Leonardo DiCaprio had nothing to do with it.
The production studio that provided the money for the Martin Scorsese film, Red Granite Pictures, used cash that had been stolen from a Malaysian state investment fund.
$3.5 billion of 1MDB money was stolen altogether, with Ā $60 million being used for the movie. Red Granite has also provided finance for Dumb and Dumber To and Daddy’s Home.
The producers have been forced to pay all $60 million back. They will have to cough up the cash to the United States in three installments: $30 million within 30 days, $20 million within the next 180 days and the last $10 million in the following 180 days.
The stolen money somehow wound up in the hands of associates of Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, whose stepson Riza Aziz co-foundedĀ Red Granite. The associates blew the cash on hasty financial investments and lavish personal expenses.
'The Wolf of Wall Street' producers to pay $60 million to U.S. in lawsuit settlement https://t.co/bEwJwb5JAK pic.twitter.com/ZUhyReQwp7
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) March 7, 2018
And with all that money they managed to spend Ā $600,000 on an insane birthday gift forĀ DiCaprio, the 1955 OscarĀ Marlon Brando won for Best Actor inĀ On the Waterfront.
DiCaprio was forced to give the statue to the authorities as part of the investigation. But not to worry, he has one himself now.