With American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr handing over their multi-million US dollar gifts from Jho Low to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), all eyes are now on the “wife of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”.
Representatives of Leonardo Di Caprio announced two weeks ago that the American actor had turned over an Oscar won by Marlon Brando to US investigators probing money laundering by 1MDB as well as initiated the return of other, unidentified items that the actor said he accepted as gifts for a charity auction and which originated from the international 1MDB money-laundering scam.
In July last year, Hollywood production company Red Granite was accused in a US civil lawsuit of using US$100 million that prosecutors said had been diverted from the 1MDB fund to finance DiCaprio’s 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” in which he starred.
DiCaprio said in October he was cooperating with the probe and would return any gifts or donations if they were found to have come from questionable sources.
In a new filing on 15th June 2017, the US DOJ moved to seize artwork by Picasso and Basquiat that it said had been purchased with laundered Malaysian money and gifted to DiCaprio by associates of Red Granite.
The latest DOJ filing also sought to seize the assets of two other Red Granite produced films which US investigators alleged were financed by money from the 1MDB fund – the 2014 comedy “Dumb and Dumber To” starring Jim Carrey, and 2015 comedy “Daddy’s Home” starring Will Ferrell.
Today, it was reported that Melinda Kerr last Friday transferred the gifts which were diverted and misappropriated from 1MDB by Jho Low to DOJ agents from her safe-deposit box in Los Angeles.
Among the presents are an 11.72 carat heart-shaped diamond valued at US$1.29 million and a US$3.8 million 8.88 carat diamond pendant.
The heart-shaped diamond pendant was gifted to Kerr by Jho Low on Valentine’s Day 2014 while the heart-shaped necklace came from New York-based designer Lorraine Schwartz.
The DoJ had filed three civil suits to seize assets, including Kerr’s jewellery, amounting to US$4.5 billion allegedly bought with money siphoned off 1MDB.
Other assets include Low’s US$250 million yacht, real estate in London, New York and Los Angeles, artworks and the gifts to “wife of MO1” – including a US$27.3 million 22-carat pink diamond necklace and 27 different 18-carat gold necklaces and bracelets worth US$1.3 million.
There were three significant developments on the front of the gifts of US$27.3 million pink diamond necklace to the “wife of MO1”:
• firstly, the lie by the BN BackBackbenchers Council (BNBBC) portal uploaded six days ago on June 21 claiming that the US$27.3 million (RM116 million) pink diamond necklace purchased by Jho Low for “wife of MO1” was never mentioned in the US Department of Justice third civil forfeiture suit on 1MDB, and that that it was a concoction by news portal Malaysiakini;
• secondly, the voluntary admission by the Director of Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan that “wife of MO1” is the wife of Prime Minister, Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor in the same manner that Abdul Rahman had voluntarily admitted in a BBC interview in September last year that “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” in US DOJ’s largest kleptocratic suits to forfeit 1MDB-linked assets were none other than the Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak; and
• thirdly, the most peculiar and extraordinary Open Letter to Political Parties by the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang on the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfriti suggesting that the US DOJ suits to forfeit 1MDB-linked assets and the allegation of the pink diamond necklace represented unacceptable “foreign intervention” in domestic affairs in Malaysia.
All eyes, not just in Malaysia, but the world are now on Rosmah, with regard to three matters:
• Firstly, whether Rosmah would agree with Abdul Rahman that she is the woman referred to with regard to “wife of MO1” in the US DOJ suits;
• Secondly, whether she had received gifts from Jho Low diverted and misappropriated from 1MDB funds, such as the US$27.3 million 22-carat pink diamond necklace and 27 different 18-carat gold necklaces and bracelets worth US$1.3 million; and
• Thirdly, if the answer is positive to the previous question, whether she would emulate Leonardo DiCaprio and Miranda Kerr to hand over to the US DOJ investigators all these multi-million US dollar worth of jewellery gifts from Jho Low which were diverted and misappropriated from 1MDB funds.