Pressure Mounts on
DiCaprio to Return ‘Ill-Gotten’ Foundation Donations
by Daniel Nussbaum 12 Sep 2016
As Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio unveiled his climate change documentary at the Toronto International Film
Festival on Saturday, the actor faced increased calls from activists to return
donations given to his environmental-focused Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation that
have been linked in news reports to funds allegedly misappropriated in the
world’s largest embezzlement scheme.
An August exposé
in the Hollywood Reporter alleged that some donations to DiCaprio’s
foundation came directly from funds siphoned from Malaysian sovereign wealth
fund 1MDB — itself the subject of an international embezzlement investigation —
that had been earmarked for development in the Southeast Asian country.
According to a Department of Justice complaint, funds
misappropriated from 1MDB were alleged
to have been used to purchase lavish gifts that were then auctioned off by the
Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation during its annual environmental gala in St.
Tropez, France. The DOJ complaint further alleged that Red Granite Pictures — a
production company co-founded by the Prime Minister of
Malaysia’s
stepson, Riza Aziz — used
$238 million of 1MDB money to fund production on the 2013 Martin
Scorsese-directed film The Wolf of Wall Street, for which DiCaprio won a
Golden Globe.
On Saturday — as DiCaprio premiered his climate change documentary
Before the Flood at TIFF — Peter Kallang, of environmental advocacy
organization Save Rivers, called
on the actor to return any questionable donations his foundation may have
received from billionaire businessman Jho Low and Aziz, two of the central
figures in the 1MDB investigation.
“In keeping the ill-gotten money, the Leonardo DiCaprio
Foundation is acting in complete contradiction to its mission statement, which
is to be ‘dedicated to the long-term health and wellbeing of all Earth’s
inhabitants… while restoring balance to threatened ecosystems and communities,”
Kallang said in a statement, according
to the Hollywood Reporter.
“The money should thus be returned to the people of
Malaysia to stop the massive destruction to the environment and ecosystem from
land developments and pollution,” Kallang added.
On Monday, Malaysian attorney and human rights advocate
Ambiga Sreenevasan penned an open letter to DiCaprio similarly urging the actor
to return the questionable donations.
“Imagine our shock — and embarrassment — to learn that a
man whom we admire and respect is connected with the heist of the decade that
has undermined the [Malaysian] people in so many ways,” Sreenevasan wrote,
according to THR. “We know that apart from being a wonderful actor, you
are deeply concerned about humanitarian and social issues. How then can you
remain silent in the face of this travesty?”
The attorney also challenged DiCaprio to travel to
Malaysia to see “how massive corruption has destroyed so much in our country.”
In August, Swiss-based environmental advocacy
organization Bruno Manser Funds became the first organization to publicly
request DiCaprio return what its executive director Lukas Straumann called “dirty
money.”
“Money was stolen from the treasury and went straight
into Leo’s pocket,” Straumann told the Hollywood Reporter last month.
“That is dirty money, and he should pay it back.”
DiCaprio’s Before the Flood follows the actor
as he travels the world to examine the effects of global warming firsthand, meeting with dignitaries including President Obama,
John Kerry and Pope Francis along
the way.
“We are truly at a turning point in history,”
DiCaprio told the
Associated Press at the film’s premiere, calling climate change “the
largest crisis we’ve ever faced.”
Hollywood Reporter
Lynne Segall was
an associate publisher for the Hollywood
Reporter, and a VP for the Los
Angeles Times.
Note: Rosa Brooks was a
columnist for
the Los Angeles Times, and special
counsel to the president for the Open
Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Moises
Naim is a global board member for the Open
Society Foundations, and was a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Maria Livanos
Cattaui is a global board member for the Open Society Foundations, and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a board member for the International Crisis Group, and was the
chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and the Climate
Reality Project.
Natural
Resources Defense Council is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.
Leonardo DiCaprio
is a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council.
Anwar Ibrahim was
a board member for the International Crisis
Group, and a deputy prime minister for Malaysia.
Lawrence H. Summers
is a board member for the International Crisis
Group, was the National Economic Council chairman for the Barack Obama administration, a trustee
at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Thomas R.
Pickering is a co-chair for the International
Crisis Group, and a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Cameron F. Kerry
is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and John F. Kerry’s brother.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at
the Brookings Institution (think tank), and married to John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is Cameron F. Kerry’s
brother, married to Teresa Heinz Kerry,
the secretary at the U.S. Department of
State for the Barack Obama
administration, and a friend of J.
Robert Kerrey.
J. Robert Kerrey
is a friend of John F. Kerry, and
was a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council.
Leonardo DiCaprio
is a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council.
Natural
Resources Defense Council is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.
James Gustave
Speth is an honorary trustee at the Natural
Resources Defense Council, and a director at the Climate Reality Project.
Albert A. Gore Jr.
is the chairman for the Climate Reality
Project, and a narrator-host for An Inconvenient Truth.
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film
directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President
Al Gore's
campaign to educate citizens about global
warming via a comprehensive slide
show that, by his own estimate made in the film, he has given more than a
thousand times.
Premiering at the 2006 Sundance Film
Festival and opening in New York City
and Los Angeles
on May 24, 2006, the documentary was a critical and box-office success, winning
two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature
and Best Original Song.[4]
The film grossed $24 million in the U.S. and $26 million in the foreign box office,
becoming the tenth highest grossing documentary film to date in the United States.[5]
The idea to document his
efforts came from producer Laurie David who saw his presentation at a
town-hall meeting on global warming which coincided with the opening of The Day After Tomorrow. Laurie David was
so inspired by Gore's slide show that she, with producer Lawrence Bender,
met with Guggenheim to adapt the presentation into a film.
Since the film's release, An
Inconvenient Truth has been credited for raising international public
awareness of global warming and reenergizing the environmental movement. The documentary has
also been included in science curricula in schools around the world, which has
spurred some controversy.
Laurie P. David
is the producer for An Inconvenient Truth, and a trustee at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Leonardo DiCaprio
is a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council.
Robert Redford is
a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council, and the founder & president of the Sundance Institute.
Sundance
Institute is the sponsor for the Sundance
Film Festival.
Barbra
Streisand Foundation was a funder for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Barbra Streisand
is the founder of the Barbra Streisand
Foundation, and dated Pierre Trudeau.
Pierre Trudeau dated
Barbra Streisand, was the prime
minister for Canada, and his son is Justin Trudeau.
Justin Trudeau
is Pierre Trudeau’s son, the prime
minister-elect for Canada, and a
member of the Canada House of Commons.
David Crombie was
the minister of health & secretary of state for Canada, a member of the Canada
House of Commons, and the Toronto
(ON) mayor.
Sidley Austin
LLP was a consulting firm for Canada.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Newton N. Minow is
a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
R. Eden Martin is
counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past
Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Francis E. George
was a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a cardinal at the Roman
Catholic Church.
Pope Francis I
is the pope for the Roman Catholic
Church.
Donald W. Wuerl
was a cardinal at the Roman Catholic
Church, and was the deacon at Teresa
Heinz Kerry’s wedding to John Heinz
III.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry was married to John Heinz III,
is married to John F. Kerry, an
honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Cameron F. Kerry
is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and John F. Kerry’s brother.
John
F. Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz
Kerry, Cameron F. Kerry’s
brother, the secretary at the U.S.
Department of State for the Barack
Obama administration, and a friend of J.
Robert Kerrey.
J. Robert Kerrey
is a friend of John F. Kerry, and
was a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council.
Leonardo DiCaprio
is a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council.
Natural
Resources Defense Council is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.
No comments:
Post a Comment