Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio’s charitable foundation would return gifts or donations made to him or his ventures if they were found to have come from Malaysian wealth fund 1MDB, which is being investigated on money laundering allegations, his representatives said on Tuesday.
In his first comment on the multinational probe into the fund, DiCaprio said he was cooperating with U.S. authorities to determine if money had come from questionable sources, according to the statement.
In July a Hollywood production company was accused in a U.S. civil lawsuit of using $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.
In a statement on Tuesday, DiCaprio’s representatives said he had first learned of the probe through press reports in July.
“He immediately had his representatives reach out to the Department of Justice to determine whether he or his foundation, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF), ever received any gifts or charitable donations directly or indirectly related to these parties, and if so, to return those gifts or donations as soon as possible,” the statement said.
