Actor and collector Leonardo DiCaprio has bailed on a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and rumors are swirling that his official explanation masks more sinister reasons, reports the New York Post’s Page Six.
It may be no coincidence that DiCaprio’s withdrawal from the $33,400-a-plate fundraiser comes just after the Hollywood Reporter (THR) published a deep dive into a complaint by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that details DiCaprio’s links to Malaysian financier Jho Low, who is part of a giant scandal involving money misappropriated from a Malaysian government fund.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leaves John Jay College of Criminal Justice following a meeting with law enforcement officials August 18, 2016 in New York. Photo Drew Angerer/Getty Images.
DiCaprio’s representatives told guests via email that “the production schedule for [DiCaprio’s] climate change film ‘Before the Flood’ has altered . . . which will prevent him from returning to Los Angeles . . . As a result, Leo personally asked his friends Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel to host Tuesday’s lunch with Hillary at their home in the Hollywood Hills.”
Jho Low at the Angel Ball, hosted by Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation at Cipriani Wall Street on October 20, 2014 in New York. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation.
Low threw a great deal of money at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, according to THR, which points out that the two have been acquainted for some six years. The DOJ complaint alleges that ill-gotten Malaysian funds financed DiCaprio’s film The Wolf of Wall Street.
Also linking the two are Low’s purchases of artworks at a 2013 auction at Christie’s New York that benefited the actor’s charity and raised some $38.8 million.
Representatives of the LDF and the Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.