Riza Aziz, Producer Of “Wolf Of Wall Street”, Has Been Charged With Serious Financial Crimes In Malaysia
Back in 2018, the production company Red Granite Pictures had to pay $57 million to the US government in connection to some embezzlement charges. This was noteworthy because they produced the movie Wolf Of Wall Street which is all about money-grubbing liars. I wonder what drew them into producing the movie? Hmm… They ponied up the money but the gag was this was going from the US to Malaysia, because that’s the place where the money was embezzled from. But now, one of the main guys behind the money-stealing, Riza Aziz (that guy up in the picture with the wolf-portrayer himself, Leonardo DiCaprio), is getting charged with five counts of money laundering by the Malaysian government. You thought just the US would get you? Malaysia wants a piece too.
Yesterday, Riza was arrested for money laundering charges and released on bail. The people at Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) let him know that charges were coming so he shouldn’t get too comfortable.
MACC says that Red Granite received stolen money from Good Star–a company associated with the “fugitive financier” Low Taek Jho and the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). There’s a lot of acronyms in this story, sorry.
Red Granite paid the US the $57 million, which got returned to Malaysia and paid to an account recovering money that disappeared from 1MDB. Now, the US Justice Department estimates the actual stolen money to be around $4.5 billion. Is that the same as $57 million? So I think Malaysia was like, “Okay so… where’s the rest?”
So this is big news in Malaysia. Not because they’re obsessed with Hollywood, but because Riza is the step-child of the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak. Wanna guess why it’s “former”? Yeah, he’s allegedly involved too. Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, were also both charged by Malaysian authorities because of this 1MDB scandal. Najib was charged with: abuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering, and his wife–who apparently is the Malaysian Rebecca Bloomwood–got charged with money laundering and tax evasion but both deny the charges.
So today Riza returned to court and joined his step-father in the fun money-scheme crackdown. He was charged with five counts of being a greedy dumbass, and could go to jail for 25 years if his potential 5-year sentences are served one after the other, and also will have to pay up to $1.25 million in fines for each charge. His sister, Nooryana Najwa, hopped on Instagram to defend her brother:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzfVX5dhsh2/
“Despite” the settlement? I don’t think you know what “despite” means. If the US managed to back him into a corner to the point they had to fork over almost $60 million, what kind of evidence do you think the Malaysian government is going to find among their own records? Also, the sister of the man who allegedly embezzled millions of dollars is not really a good character witness. You want me to believe you didn’t benefit from any of that money somehow? Maybe stay out of this before they start looking at you.
Pic: Wenn.com