Should Leonardo DiCaprio resign from UN climate change post?
A Swiss rainforest charity has called for actor Leonardo DiCaprio to renounce his position as UN Messenger for Peace for climate change due to alleged connections to a multi-billion dollar Malaysian corruption scandal.
Mr. DiCaprio was appointed to the UN position in 2014 听by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who called him a "credible voice in the environmental movement." But the validity of that statement has been thrown into question as evidence surfaces that the actor had (1MDB).
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit in July against the 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund run by the Malaysian government and was intended to make investments in global projects and use profits to improve the quality of life for the Malaysian people. But the fund has been linked to environmentally destructive practices and was treated as a "personal bank account," 听
The DOJ听civil forfeiture case seeks the听recovery of more than $1 billion in assets associated with an international conspiracy to launder funds misappropriated from the 1MDB Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
"If DiCaprio is unwilling to come clean, we ask him to step down as UN Messenger for Peace for climate change, because he simply lacks the credibility for such an important role," Lukas Straumann, director of the Switzerland-based charity the Bruno Manser Fund,
The lawsuit claims that the actor鈥檚 environmental protection charity, the is one of the businesses to receive donations allegedly embezzled from the 1MDB fund. One of the charity鈥檚 major causes is fighting deforestation and habitat destruction.
The fund is also linked back to DiCaprio through his Hollywood connections. The 2013 movie 鈥淭he Wolf of Wall Street,鈥� in which Dicaprio starred, was largely , 听which was founded by Riza Aziz, stepson to the Malaysia's Prime Minister, Najib Razak, who manages the 1MDB fund.
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As further detailed in the complaints, the stolen funds were laundered into the United States and used by the co-conspirators to acquire and invest in various assets.听 These assets allegedly included high-end real estate and hotel properties in New York and Los Angeles, a $35 million jet aircraft, works of art by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, an interest in the music publishing rights of EMI Music and the production of the 2013 film听The Wolf of Wall Street
that it was confident that 鈥渨hen the facts come out, it will be clear that Riza Aziz and Red Granite did nothing wrong.鈥�
It was at a press conference in London held Friday by the Bruno Manser, which focuses on deforestation in Malaysia, called on DiCaprio to take action.
鈥淟eonardo DiCaprio needs to understand that we can鈥檛 save the environment if we fail to stop corruption,鈥� Straumann . 鈥淎nd he has to come clean on his ties to Riza Aziz and [Malaysian financier] Low Taek Jho, two key figures of Malaysia鈥檚 1MDB corruption scandal.鈥�
"He needs to become part of the solution," Straumann . "But today he is part of the problem."
DiCaprio has not yet publicly responded to the call to step down from the UN post.听
