DESIDERATA was on the run to cari some mullah of the Vitamin M kind, so I won't add my usual comments as an INTRO -- just ask you rich ER to invest in case they make another MOVIE out of these two takes, OK! ~~ YL, DEsi
PS: I don't mind being roped in into the SCRIPT-WRIThING TEAM! You guys lobby for me OK -- I've been feeding you guys FREE READS for the LuST 11 YEARS!
The Secret Money Behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
The Secret Money Behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
Investigators believe much of the cash used to make the Leonardo DiCaprio film about a stock swindler originated with embattled Malaysian state development fund 1MDB
LOS ANGELES—Despite the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese, the 2013 hit movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” took more than six years to get made because studios weren’t willing to invest in a risky R-rated project.
Help arrived from a virtually unknown production company called Red Granite Pictures. Though it had made just one movie, Red Granite came up with the more than $100 million needed to film the sex- and drug-fueled story of a penny-stock swindler.
Global investigators now believe much of the money to make the movie about a stock scam was diverted from a state fund 9,000 miles away in Malaysia, a fund that had been established to spur local economic development.
The investigators, said people familiar with their work, believe this financing was part of a wider scandal at the Malaysian fund, which has been detailed in Wall Street Journal articles over the past year.
The fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, was set up seven years ago by the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak. His stepson, Riza Aziz, is the chairman of Red Granite Pictures.
The 1MDB fund is now the focus of numerous investigations at home and abroad, which grew out of $11 billion of debt it ran up and questions raised in Malaysia about how some of its money was used.
Investigators in two countries believe that $155 million originating with 1MDB moved into Red Granite in 2012 through a circuitous route involving offshore shell companies, said people familiar with the probes. This same money trail also is described by a person familiar with 1MDB’s dealings and supported by documents reviewed by the Journal.
The story of how “The Wolf of Wall Street” was financed brings together Hollywood celebrities with a cast of characters mostly known for their connections to the Malaysian prime minister. It detours through parties in Cannes and aboard a yacht, and spending on such embellishments as a rare, million-dollar movie poster and an original 1955 Academy Award statuette.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued subpoenas to several current and former employees of Red Granite and to a bank and an accounting firm the company used, according to people familiar with the subpoenas.
…more
The Secret Money Behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
By Bradley Hope, John R. Emshwiller And Ben Fritz
WSJ
Investigators believe much of the cash used to make the Leonardo DiCaprio film about a stock swindler originated with embattled Malaysian state development fund 1MDB
LOS ANGELES—Despite the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese, the 2013 hit movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” took more than six years to get made because studios weren’t willing to invest in a risky R-rated project.
Help arrived from a virtually unknown production company called Red Granite Pictures. Though it had made just one movie, Red Granite came up with the more than $100 million needed to film the sex- and drug-fueled story of a penny-stock swindler.
Global investigators now believe much of the money to make the movie about a stock scam was diverted from a state fund 9,000 miles away in Malaysia, a fund that had been established to spur local economic development.
The investigators, said people familiar with their work, believe this financing was part of a wider scandal at the Malaysian fund, which has been detailed in Wall Street Journal articles over the past year.
The fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, was set up seven years ago by the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak. His stepson, Riza Aziz, is the chairman of Red Granite Pictures.
The 1MDB fund is now the focus of numerous investigations at home and abroad, which grew out of $11 billion of debt it ran up and questions raised in Malaysia about how some of its money was used.
Investigators in two countries believe that $155 million originating with 1MDB moved into Red Granite in 2012 through a circuitous route involving offshore shell companies, said people familiar with the probes. This same money trail also is described by a person familiar with 1MDB’s dealings and supported by documents reviewed by the Journal.
The story of how “The Wolf of Wall Street” was financed brings together Hollywood celebrities with a cast of characters mostly known for their connections to the Malaysian prime minister. It detours through parties in Cannes and aboard a yacht, and spending on such embellishments as a rare, million-dollar movie poster and an original 1955 Academy Award statuette.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued subpoenas to several current and former employees of Red Granite and to a bank and an accounting firm the company used, according to people familiar with the subpoenas.
…more
The Secret Money Behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
By Bradley Hope, John R. Emshwiller And Ben Fritz
WSJ
Saudi Statement ‘Clearing’ Malaysian PM a Red Herring
Foreign minister’s statement that donation for Najib came from Saudis goes against the facts
Although Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir last week publicly stated that US$681 million transferred into the personal account of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in March of 2013 was a donation from the Saudi royal family, that statement raises more questions than it answers.
Voluminous records in the hands of investigators contradict that. The money almost certainly didn’t come from the Saudis. It appears to be the latest in a long series of twists and turns that Najib has engineered to deflect questions over where the money came from, and where it went after US$620 million was transferred out later in 2013.
Najib has been under enormous pressure to answer questions for months, but has fended off all charges, remaining invulnerable with the backing of United Malays National Organization district chiefs, firing investigators and using sedition laws against critics. Since the Saudi minister’s announcement, however, Najib and his deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamadi have used it as a triumphant cudgel to defend themselves against former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has led the charge against Najib, both behind the scenes and in front, since the 2013 general election.
The statement, which has generated questions over its ambiguity and lack of definity, raises the distinct possibility that at some point it is going to come back to bite the Saudis, especially if, as seems likely, investigations into money-laundering in the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and other countries prove the source of the money was actually the scandal-plagued 1Malaysia Development Bhd. fund, which is backed by the Malaysian Ministry of Finance.
1MDB is said to have more than US$12 billion in unfunded liabilities and could threaten Malaysia’s entire financial system. The fund has been the subject of a long series of spectacular investigations including one by the US Justice Department into the funding of the box office blockbuster Wolf of Wall Street as well as purchases of luxury properties in California and New York by people believed to be proxies of the Najib family.
Najib has made at least two trips to Saudi Arabia in the past year amid speculation that he was attempting to seek cover for what has since increased to a total of US$1 billion that flowed into his personal accounts.
Al-Jubeir called the money a “genuine donation” on April 14 in comments to reporters from the Malaysian state-owned media who just happened to be in Istanbul after a meeting with Najib. The next day, according to wire services, Malaysia’s foreign ministry provided a video clip of al-Jubeir’s comments, which Najib’s office immediately said prove the prime minister’s innocence.
The confirmation, however, is in fact a change from a previous statement by el-Jubeir, who said in February that the funds were not a “donation,” and that the money was from a private transaction by interests in Saudi Arabia as an investment. His statement last week changed that, saying it was a donation by the royal family.
According to Sarawak Report’s editor Clare Rewcastle Brown, records show that the money – US$681,999,976 (RM2.6 billion) by actual count was transferred by wire into Najib’s Ambank account from the Singapore branch of the Switzerland-based Falcon private bank, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi fund Aabar Investments PJS – not from Saudi Arabia. Both the Swiss and Singaporean governments have announced they are investigating Falcon and have frozen funds.
So the Saudis have to come up with a reason for why the money wasn’t transferred by the Saudis but by Aabar. Aabar in fact has nothing to do with the Saudi government or royal family, as nearly as can be determined, but in was 1MDB’s main business partner in the proposed development of the Tun Razak Exchange real estate project in Kuala Lumpur, which has failed to get off the ground.
…more
Saudi Statement ‘Clearing’ Malaysian PM a Red Herring
April 18, 2016 – Asia Sentinel
, 2016 – Asia SentinelForeign minister’s statement that donation for Najib came from Saudis goes against the facts
Although Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir last week publicly stated that US$681 million transferred into the personal account of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in March of 2013 was a donation from the Saudi royal family, that statement raises more questions than it answers.
Voluminous records in the hands of investigators contradict that. The money almost certainly didn’t come from the Saudis. It appears to be the latest in a long series of twists and turns that Najib has engineered to deflect questions over where the money came from, and where it went after US$620 million was transferred out later in 2013.
Najib has been under enormous pressure to answer questions for months, but has fended off all charges, remaining invulnerable with the backing of United Malays National Organization district chiefs, firing investigators and using sedition laws against critics. Since the Saudi minister’s announcement, however, Najib and his deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamadi have used it as a triumphant cudgel to defend themselves against former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has led the charge against Najib, both behind the scenes and in front, since the 2013 general election.
The statement, which has generated questions over its ambiguity and lack of definity, raises the distinct possibility that at some point it is going to come back to bite the Saudis, especially if, as seems likely, investigations into money-laundering in the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and other countries prove the source of the money was actually the scandal-plagued 1Malaysia Development Bhd. fund, which is backed by the Malaysian Ministry of Finance.
1MDB is said to have more than US$12 billion in unfunded liabilities and could threaten Malaysia’s entire financial system. The fund has been the subject of a long series of spectacular investigations including one by the US Justice Department into the funding of the box office blockbuster Wolf of Wall Street as well as purchases of luxury properties in California and New York by people believed to be proxies of the Najib family.
Najib has made at least two trips to Saudi Arabia in the past year amid speculation that he was attempting to seek cover for what has since increased to a total of US$1 billion that flowed into his personal accounts.
Al-Jubeir called the money a “genuine donation” on April 14 in comments to reporters from the Malaysian state-owned media who just happened to be in Istanbul after a meeting with Najib. The next day, according to wire services, Malaysia’s foreign ministry provided a video clip of al-Jubeir’s comments, which Najib’s office immediately said prove the prime minister’s innocence.
The confirmation, however, is in fact a change from a previous statement by el-Jubeir, who said in February that the funds were not a “donation,” and that the money was from a private transaction by interests in Saudi Arabia as an investment. His statement last week changed that, saying it was a donation by the royal family.
According to Sarawak Report’s editor Clare Rewcastle Brown, records show that the money – US$681,999,976 (RM2.6 billion) by actual count was transferred by wire into Najib’s Ambank account from the Singapore branch of the Switzerland-based Falcon private bank, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi fund Aabar Investments PJS – not from Saudi Arabia. Both the Swiss and Singaporean governments have announced they are investigating Falcon and have frozen funds.
So the Saudis have to come up with a reason for why the money wasn’t transferred by the Saudis but by Aabar. Aabar in fact has nothing to do with the Saudi government or royal family, as nearly as can be determined, but in was 1MDB’s main business partner in the proposed development of the Tun Razak Exchange real estate project in Kuala Lumpur, which has failed to get off the ground.
…more
Saudi Statement ‘Clearing’ Malaysian PM a Red Herring
April 18, 2016 – Asia Sentinel
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