SUPERMODEL Miranda Kerr was showered in millions of dollars worth of diamonds by a billionaire Malaysian businessman, according to a new civil complaint filed by the US government.
Financier Jho Low began to woo Kerr on Valentine’s Day 2014, shortly after her divorce from Orlando Bloom.
Low is a Malaysian deal maker who is a central figure in the alleged misappropriation of funds from Malaysian state fund called 1Malaysia Development Bhd, known as 1MDB.
For his very first gift, Low told his New York jeweller, Lorraine Schwartz, that he had “$1-2 million” to spend and that size matters.
That gift an 11.72 carat heart-shaped diamond that he bought for $US1.29 million came in time for Valentine’s Day, shortly after Kerr’s divorce.
“Low gave the jewellery as gifts to Miranda Kerr, an Australian national,” according to the government complaint.
Low began to obsess about Kerr in January 2014. He met the jeweller in his pricey Time Warner condo, which, the government alleges, he also bought with stolen cash.
At the condo, he chose the diamond and instructed the jeweller to inscribe it with Kerr’s initials, MK.
“Low gave the 11.72 carat heart-shaped diamond to Kerr, who resides in Los Angeles, as a Valentine’s Day present,” the court filings state.
That was just the beginning.
In November 2014, Low plunked down $US3.8 million as partial payment for an 8.88 carat diamond pendant from Schwartz valued at around $4.5 million that he gave to Kerr as a gift.
He bought it after seeing a photo of it. “Heart looks beautiful,” he wrote to his jeweller. “Let’s take it and be ready asap!”
The diamond was sent to Low in November at the London office of a lingerie company that the government alleges he had also purchased with stolen money.
It came with a chain and necklace that cost $US800,000. He then spent an additional $1.98 million on 11 carat diamond earrings and a matching necklace, ring and bracelet, which he also gave to Kerr.
Low gave Kerr the diamonds while they were on his new yacht, the Equanimity. By October, he added $1 million 11 carat diamond earrings to his offerings to Kerr.
He then wired another $4.05 million to Schwartz, to pay for it all. (He also sent diamonds to his mum.
Male movie stars were also the recipient of gifts bought with money that was allegedly stolen from the people of Malaysia.
Low spent millions to fly with Leonardo DiCaprio around the world and to gamble with him, the government alleges.
On Thursday, DiCaprio announced through a spokesman that he was returning more than $US13 million worth of art that had been gifted to him by a Hollywood production company, Red Granite, which funded the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street.
DiCaprio is also returning Marlon Brando’s Oscar for On the Waterfront, which Red Granite gave him.
When contacted by The Post, Avra Douglas, who is the executor and archivist of Brando’s estate, said that the estate is now considering its legal options.
“I know that [the Oscar] was missing when Marlon was alive,” she said.
The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to recover $540 million in assets, including penthouse apartments, paintings by Vincent Van Gogh and a yacht known as the Equanimity, that it says were stolen from Malaysia’s troubled sovereign wealth fund, prompting objections from Malaysian officials who said Friday there was no evidence of such crimes.
It’s part of an effort to seize allegedly ill-gotten assets linked to fraud at the government-controlled fund, which is intended to promote economic development projects in the Asian nation.
The Justice Department says the complex money laundering scheme was intended to enrich top-level officials of the fund, including some who are close to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Last summer, prosecutors moved to recover more than $1 billion diverted from the fund to pay for properties in New York and California, a $35 million jet, art by Van Gogh and Claude Monet and to help finance the movies, “Dumb and Dumber To” and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which was produced by Red Granite Pictures, a studio co-founded by Najib’s stepson.
The Justice Department alleges that more than $4.5 billion has been stolen from the fund known informally as 1MDB.
The case is the largest single action the Justice Department has taken under its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which seeks to recover foreign bribery proceeds and embezzled funds.
“These cases involve billions of dollars that should have been used to help the people of Malaysia, but instead was used by a small number of individuals to fuel their astonishing greed,” said Sandra R. Brown, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
She described a “web of lies and bogus transactions” and said “we simply will not allow the United States to be a place where corrupt individuals can expect to hide assets and lavishly spend money that should be used for the benefit of citizens of other nations.” Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s claims, saying there was no evidence from investigation anywhere that money was misappropriated from 1MDB.
Several other countries including Singapore and Switzerland are conducting probes.
Apandi also expressed “strong concerns” over suggestions Najib, who has not been named in civil cases related to 1MDB, engaged in criminal acts. The attorney general said Malaysia will uphold the “rule of law” and take action if there is sufficient evidence of wrongdoing.
Najib’s press secretary Tengku Sariffuddin, in a separate statement, voiced concern that the Justice Department didn’t seek cooperation from the Malaysian government or 1MDB.
“We are also concerned by the unnecessary and gratuitous naming of certain matters and individuals that are only relevant to domestic political manipulation and interference.
This suggests a motivation that goes beyond the objective of seizing assets,” he said, without elaborating.
Some of the items at issue were given to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation for a charity auction. The foundation says it is “dedicated to the long-term health and wellbeing of all Earth’s inhabitants.”
A DiCaprio spokesperson said that those items and an Academy Award won by Marlon Brando which was given to Mr. DiCaprio as a set gift by Red Granite to thank him for his work on ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.”’ were voluntarily returned.
“Prior to the government’s filing of the civil pleading today, Mr. DiCaprio initiated return of these items, which were received and accepted by him for the purpose of being included in an annual charity auction to benefit his eponymous foundation,” a DiCaprio spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
Red Granite released a statement saying it is trying to resolve the case and is fully cooperating with the Justice Department.
