The actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio is being urged to repay donations connected to the Malaysian fund that backed his hit film The Wolf of Wall Street and is now subject to a US justice department investigation and asset seizure effort.
The calls come from the Bruno Manser Funds, a Swiss-based charity focused on protecting the Malaysian rainforest. The organization accused the star of “double standards” for accepting donations linked to an international money laundering scandal, according to international media.
The charity claims that while DiCaprio has been engaged in an effort to protect the last remaining tracts of rainforest in Sumatra, the scandal-plagued 1MDB fund, which participated in a fundraising Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation auction at Christie’s in 2013, is connected to Malaysian deforestation less than 500 miles away.
“We are deeply disturbed that Leonardo DiCaprio and his foundation accepted assets that originate from the proceeds of corruption in Malaysia. This is a disgrace and in total contradiction with the declared aims of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation,” said Lukas Straumann, director of the Bruno Manser Fund.
“We call on DiCaprio to apologize and pay back all this dirty money to the Malaysian people.”
“We hear he has a genuine commitment to nature and championing indigenous rights … but if it comes to accepting stolen money, that’s a simple no go,” he said to International Media.
According to the fund, DiCaprio received money from controversial businessman Jho Low and Riza Shahriz Bin Abdul Aziz, the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak – both figures named in a justice department asset seizure complaint and connected to the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
The Manser fund claims the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation received money from a Christie’s charity auction in 2013, where Low is alleged to have used $1.1m of diverted 1MDB funds to buy two works of art by Ed Ruscha and Mark Ryden.
DiCaprio also skipped a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton due to a scheduling conflict, but questions were raised as to whether it had to do with the Malaysian scandal.
