One of the financiers of The Wolf Of Wall Street is facing five charges related to money laundering.
Heard about this one? Whilst Martin Scorsese’s film of The Wolf Of Wall Street attracted significant box office and awards attention, it did so against a backdrop of – ironically – financial questions.
One of the producers of the film, Riza Aziz, finds himself potentially facing 25 years in prison, as well as millions in fines. He’s been accused by Malaysian authorities of laundering $250m. The money, goes the allegation, was taken from the Malaysian-based 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
The laundering accusations directly seem to link to Aziz’s production company, Red Granite Productions Inc, that he set up back in 2010. Through that company, funding was put in place for The Wolf Of Wall Street, as well as the Daniel Radcliffe-headlined Horns and Scott Cooper’s film, Out Of The Furnace.
There’s no suggestion that those involved with the films were in any way aware of any potential wrongdoing, to be clear. Put your lawyers away.
The case is set to be heard in January 2020, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Aziz has pleaded not guilty to the five charges put before him. It did note though that Red Granite has settled out of court – at a cost of $60m – a claim that some of the financing for The Wolf Of Wall Street came from 1MDB’s money.
The case, which has been bubbling for some time, is set to be heard in January 2020.
