A lot of humor is made about the — increasingly younger — girlfriends of Leonardo Dicapriobut they deserve some reservations, judging by the recent judicial reports leaked thanks to the channel Bloombergeven the criteria with which you choose friends. In 2018 he was questioned by the FBI, and it was only now knownabout her dealings with the shady Malaysian businessman Jho Lownicknamed “the Great Gatsby of Malaysia”, now on the run and wanted worldwideresponsible for the disappearance of 4.5 billion dollars from a Malaysian state investment fund channeled into its pockets by a complex system of offshore companies and then – with part of the same money – also financing the production of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Mockery of the joke: in the film, DiCaprio’s role is precisely that of a financial wizard who turns out to be a con man.
Five years of friendship – but the first meeting, in a disco, dates back to 2010 – between Low, whom DiCaprio called “my man”, my man, and the actor, to whom he gave various nicknames, have been reconstructed by FBI agents in thousands of messages and emails. In fact, the picture that emerges is truly Gatsby-like: the millionaire actually “bought” the friendship of the star, like many other stars, with sumptuous gifts and millionaire projects. But DiCaprio’s trust had earned it, so much so that – according to the investigators’ dossier – the two had also met each other’s mothers (and the star has an almost monogamous relationship with him). They planned joint businesses: a $1 billion multi-film mega-fund, a Warner Bros amusement park in Asia with rides based on DiCaprio movies, an eco-resort in Belize. The actor defended himself by saying that he had the “friend’s” background “checked” by his managers, and that he had been assured that he was an okay person.
The investigations have been going on for years. In 2019, in Malaysia, the manufacturer of The Wolf of Wall StreetRiza Aziz: the money, it was precisely the accusation, came from the embezzlement against the state fund. Back in 2018 — right around the time these interrogations were taking place, only now leaked — theNew York Timesreported that DiCaprio had given a number of lavish gifts that Jho Low had given him: movie memorabilia such as Marlon Brando’s $600,000 Oscar statuette and a $9 million painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Of lavish gifts bestowed like candy – and even sacks full of banknotes – the friendship, with an equally priced flavor, was also woven between the Malaysian fugitive and Kim Kardashianalso being questioned by Federal Service investigators over her dealings with Low.
Eccentric reports: Kardashian recalled staying up until dawn in a Las Vegas casino with Low, and winning $350,000 in a game. She wanted to give it back to him, he persistently refused, and finally she says she walked out of the casino with bags of hundred-dollar bills.
On another occasion, the billionaire also offered Kim Kardashian and her then-husband Kanye West a gift of a Basquiat painting. The two had refused, but not out of scruple: because Kanye, investment for investment, had let him know that he would have preferred a Monet. The gift did not arrive: “Low”, Kardashian confesses, “was very fickle in terms of gifts, and very often he promised them without giving them”.