Malaysian leader’s stepson allegedly bought US property with public funds

The stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Hollywood film producer Riza Aziz, allegedly diverted public funds from a Malaysian government company to acquire luxury properties in New York and Los Angeles, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal Thursday.

According to the New Yorkbased newspaper, which cited unnamed sources close to the case, the stepson of Razak used over $50 million from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) development fund, 100 percent owned by the Government of Malaysia.

With these funds, Aziz bought a duplex of 715 square meters in the Park Laurel condominiums overlooking Central Park in New York for $33.5 million.

He invested the rest of the money in a mansion of 1,022 square meters with a 37meterlong pool in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, acquired for $17.5 million.

According to the Journal, the financing of these acquisitions is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the USA, which is carrying out a wider investigation on the alleged embezzlement of 1MDB public funds.

The FBI is working on the assumption that the $50 million used for these purchases are part of a total of at least $238 million that were transferred to an ‘offshore’ company owned by Aziz.

Coincidentally, Aziz was the producer, among others, of the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street”, directed by Martin Scorsese and in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays a New York stockbroker involved in cases of fraud and corruption.

According to the Journal, part of the financing of the film would have been obtained by loans from 1MDB through the mediation of Aziz.