In one of the biggest asset seizures in U.S. history, Federal prosecutors are expected to file civil lawsuits against “The Wolf of Wall Street” producer and financier Red Granite Pictures, the Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday.

Billions of dollars were allegedly drained out of a Malaysian government fund since it launched in 2009. The money trail led to Red Granite co-founder Riza Aziz, whose stepfather is the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Authorities are expected to seize millions in assets including properties and other belongings tied to the company.

The Malaysian fund, known as 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB,) was supposed to help the country’s economy, but according to the F.B.I., the money was instead pumped into real estate in New York and Los Angeles–Aziz reportedly spent $50 million on two homes–and later funded Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s box office smash hit, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which grossed nearly $400 million worldwide in 2013. The film was deemed too raunchy and was not allowed to be screened in Malaysia.

It’s not the only drama “Wolf of Wall Street” is facing the Paramount drama this past year. In January, a judge ordered DiCaprio to give a deposition in a civil lawsuit over the portrayal of one of the film’s real-life bankers.

DiCaprio’s Appian Way banner was also a producer on the “Wolf of Wall Street,” which tells the story of Wall Street criminal and ex-banker Jordan Belfort, though neither Appian Way nor Scorsese are subjects of the F.B.I.’s investigation.

Source; Variety

The Wolf of Wall Street is nominated for eight MTV Movie Awards! Here are the categories to vote for the film:

Movie of the year: The Wolf of Wall Street Best male performance: Leonardo DiCaprio Breakthrough performance: Margot Robbie Best on-screen duo: Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio Best shirtless performance: Leonardo DiCaprio #wft moment: Leonardo DiCaprio Best musical moment: Leonardo DiCaprio Best comedic performance: Jonah Hill Leo fans make sure you vote every day until voting is over. Lets pass this around on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr and make it a The Wolf of Wall Street sweep!

Vote at MTV Movies Awards

He’s been unlucky

First, lets look at his nominations, and who he lost out to.

Leo has been nominated twice before in the Best Actor category for ‘The Aviator’ in 2005 and ‘Blood Diamond’ in 2007.

In those years he lost out to Jamie Foxx in ‘Ray’ and Forest Whitaker in ‘The Last King of Scotland’. Two towering and career-defining performances, much like Tommy Lee Jones’ in ’The Fugitive’ which denied him earlier in his career when he was nominated for ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’.

Ditto 2014. Let’s be clear, Leo is fantastic as Jordan Belfort in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. It’s a typically intense performance, but it’s also one that proves he’s got what it takes to do physical comedy too.

However, Matthew McConaughey (who pipped him to the post) is riding the crest of a wave of critical acclaim, in the the biggest year of his acting career. This makes Leo plain unlucky.

Source: Yahoo UK

Conversations with Leonardo DiCaprio

Friday, February 21, 2014 at 7:10 pm (PT)

Career Q&A with Leonardo DiCaprio. Moderated by Jenelle Riley, Variety.

Leonardo DiCaprio apologizes as he reaches for an e-cigarette; he’s spent a long day taking photos and doing interviews, and has been longing for a break. As he relaxes in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel, he stops to admire the setting Los Angeles sun and offers a simple tribute: “Wow, that’s gorgeous.”

“When I started acting, I didn’t think of it as a career,” DiCaprio, 39, says of his early start as a pre-teen appearing in commercials. “I always thought Hollywood was this magical world where a fairy came down and said, ‘Come live with the Munchkins; you are now one of us.’?” He laughs. “I didn’t understand the concept of it as a career. I thought I would save up enough money to go to college.”

DiCaprio’s parents divorced when he was a year old, and he lived primarily with his mother, Irmelin, in a hardscrabble neighborhood he affectionately refers to as “Prostitution Alley,” near Western Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. “I saw all the moral decay you could, beginning at 2 years old,” he notes. “But I also got to see how the other half lived.” That was thanks to a to scholarship to University Elementary School, a magnet program of UCLA, in the tony Westwood section of Los Angeles. His mother would drive him 45 minutes to school and back every day. “I could see that this other world was out there. And if I could only get my shot, I would never waste the opportunity. That mentality and that gratitude are still in me.”

Source: Variety

“This was a seven-year process and it’s been beyond my wildest dreams,” DiCaprio told THR’s Scott Feinberg. “A film that, I think, takes a lot of chances and is trying or attempting to push the envelope…that takes on the corruption in our financial institutions in a very authentic way, that there’s an audience for that. That’s what’s been amazing. A lot of our instincts have been proven right in that regard and it’s very gratifying.”

Source: THR

We’re meandering down this memory lane on a mild winter afternoon, DiCaprio talking about his long-standing fascination with the world of wealth and excess, subjects explored with manic energy and unbridled irreverence in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the actor’s fifth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. The movie, nominated for five Oscars, including best picture and a lead actor nod for DiCaprio, has won both raves and outrage over its exuberant and aggressive depiction of the financial depravity of former stockbroker Jordan Belfort and his merry band of idiot scam artists at the Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm.

Source: latimes.com

The 39-year-old actor was seen snapping away on an iPhone at the premiere of his film The Wolf Of Wall Street in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday.

Leonardo was having a wonderful time among the hundreds of pumped-up fans who crowded the arrivals line and waved banners reading ‘Go! Go! Go!’ and big yellow pens as a nod to the actor’s now famous movie line ‘Sell me this pen!’

Source: dailymail.co.uk