Suit claims Wolf of Wall Street financed with embezzled money, say reports
(TMI) – A suit filed in a Los Angeles court has claimed that the Oscar-nominated US$100 million (RM330 million) film the Wolf of Wall Street was financed with embezzled money, reports said.
The Hollywood Reporter said Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler, producers of the 1994 hit Dumb and Dumber, are suing Red Granite and its principals, Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland, for being excluded from a sequel of Dumb and Dumber.
The original suit has been amended to include a claim that their adversaries have committed racketeering in relation to Middle Eastern investors it sought for Dumb and Dumber To, the report said.
“Red Granite is funded with monies that include proceeds from offences against a foreign nation that involve bribery of public officials, or misappropriation, theft, or embezzlement of public funds by a public official,” the complaint reads. Riza, whose full name is Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz, is Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s son from an earlier marriage.
(Rosmah is Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s wife.)
In the suit, Krevoy and Stabler claimed that Riza and McFarland “engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity, in that they have engaged in multiple financial transactions within the United States – including financing of the Wolf of Wall Street and then separately financing Dumb and Dumber To… with knowledge that the transactions were designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds of the illegal activity.”
The Wolf of Wall Street was all about ill-gotten money, telling the story of trader Jordan Belfort who made millions selling dodgy stocks.
Although the film made headlines when it was nominated for several awards, it was also previously criticised for glamourising Belfort’s story, though star Leonardo DiCaprio who picked up the award for best actor in a musical or comedy at the Golden Globes had stressed that it did not seek to condone Belfort’s actions and the man himself had insisted he acted much worse in real life.
The Hollywood Reporter said the claim that an Oscar-nominated picture was used to obscure embezzled public funds could be used as leverage (what lawyers call a “pressure point”) in the ongoing dispute over whether Krevoy and Stabler can be sidelined from Dumb and Dumber To.
