Leonardo Dicaprio Dazzles in Corruption Trial Testimony


Leonardo DiCaprio, a famous actor from Hollywood, testified Monday in a trial for political corruption that also included a 90s hip-hop star and a disgraced Malaysian financier.

AFP says that Pras Michel, a member of the US music group The Fugees, is being charged with helping Low Taek Jho, the Malaysian businessman at the center of the scandal, send money to the US to try to influence politics.

Monday, the actor from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” told the jury about parties that Low threw that were very expensive and may have been paid for with money stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.

DiCaprio has been called to testify in what has become one of the largest embezzlement cases in history. He is not accused of doing anything wrong.

The 48-year-old actor testified that Low threw “a lot of expensive parties with lots of different people from all over the world” on boats and in nightclubs. Often, celebrities like Michel were there.

DiCaprio said that he and Low met for the first time at a party in Las Vegas around 2010. The actor smiled and said that he didn’t remember everything from that night.

Low then invited him to parties regularly. There was the New Year’s Eve party, where guests chartered a private jet from Australia to the United States to witness two separate midnight clock strikes.

“I was given the green light by my team as well as the studios to accept Mr. Low’s funding,” DiCaprio said. “That means that the background check was fine and that he was seen as a legitimate businessperson.”

Low also gave gifts to DiCaprio’s environmental foundation, which he set up.

But in 2015, the actor said, he stopped talking to Low because people thought he had something to do with billions of dollars going missing from 1MDB’s accounts.

Low is said to have fled to China and is still at large. He used 1MDB money to pay for his lavish lifestyle, invest in Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie, hang out with rich and famous people, and try to change politics.

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