Leonardo DiCaprio and Kim Kardashian were both questioned by the FBI as part of a federal investigation into Malaysian tycoon Jho Low.
Newly revealed documents from this investigation shed light on Kim Kardashian’s extravagant story involving cash at a Las Vegas casino in the United States. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek report, previously undisclosed documents indicate that the FBI spoke to the two celebrities while gathering information in the case against Jho Low, a central figure in the infamous 1MDB scandal. The 1MDB fund, founded by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 to promote socio-economic development, is believed by Malaysian and U.S. investigators to have lost approximately $4.5 billion between 2009 and 2015.
Kim Kardashian’s Encounter with FBI
Kim Kardashian informed the FBI in 2019 that she was in Las Vegas with a group, including Jho Low and two “Wall Street wolves,” in a private room at 5 a.m. However, when the Skims brand matriarch (42 years old) decided to leave, a friend urged her to stay because he “heard Low was making everyone big at the end of the night.”
FBI documents reveal that Kardashian “stayed and won big in a card game.” But when she tried to “return all of her chips to Low,” whom she first met in 2009, he told her the chips were hers.
According to the FBI report, when Kardashian went to the casino cashier to withdraw cash with chips, she knew she had won $350,000 in betting and was then handed “a trash bag filled with $100 bills,” totaling $250,000.
The FBI report also states that afterward Kim Kardashian “put the bag of cash in her purse and boarded a Southwest Airlines flight back to Los Angeles.”
Later, Kim is said to have received an additional $100,000 – in another cash bag – during a party with Low in Las Vegas.
Kim Sells Ferrari and Buys West-Named Lamborghini
In 2014, Kim Kardashian told her ex-husband Kanye West that Low wanted to gift her a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, but the rapper was accused of “having Kardashian text Low saying they didn’t like Basquiat and instead wanted a Monet.”
According to FBI documents, this action was clearly “disruptive to Low because both Kardashian and West noticed Low was very erratic in gift-giving and never expected to receive a suggested gift of a painting.”
The FBI paperwork also reflects that Kim Kardashian received $305,000 from Low as a wedding gift when she married Kris Humphries in 2011, and Kim bought a white Ferrari with this money.
Investigators confirm that she later sold the car and bought a Lamborghini named after West.
FBI Details Leonardo DiCaprio’s Close Relationship with Low
FBI reports detail Leonardo DiCaprio’s close relationship with Low, but state that the actor often “had his representatives read articles and propose he continue working with someone. In this case, his representative gave the green light for him to continue working with Low.”
The FBI assesses: “DiCaprio lives in a world of rumors. So he doesn’t take any of those rumors seriously until negative news about Jho Low surfaced, and his team told him that things have now become serious.”
When news linking Low to the 1MDB scandal emerged in 2015, Bloomberg reported that the Oscar winner was “planning a fundraiser in Saint-Tropez, France. Low promised to donate a work by artist Roy Lichtenstein.”
When the artwork was alleged to never have arrived, DiCaprio had to withdraw it from the auction and then “started to distance himself from Low.”
“He felt embarrassed,” FBI documents note.
A source told Page Six about the relationship between the two stars, Kim Kardashian and Leonardo DiCaprio, with Jho Low: “Celebrities don’t work for this criminal. In many cases, they are actually just being duped.”
