DiCaprio promises to return "dirty" money

Representatives of Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio contacted the Justice Department in July immediately after the government alleged some money embezzled from a Malaysian government fund financed his film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” his spokesman said Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The comments are the first from Mr. DiCaprio’s camp since the Justice Department filed civil forfeiture suits against luxury real estate, artwork and other assets purchased with allegedly stolen funds from 1Malaysia Development Bhd. by a cast of characters including Malaysian financier Jho Low, who was a friend of Mr. DiCaprio’s.

They also come in the wake of protests from Switzerland’s Bruno Manser Fund, a rain-forest charity, which called earlier this month for Mr. DiCaprio to explain his ties to the alleged fraud or step down from his position as a United Nations “Messenger of Peace for Climate Change.”

According to the fund, DiCaprio received money from controversial businessman Jho Low and Riza Shahriz Bin Abdul Aziz, the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak – both figures named in a justice department asset seizure complaint and connected to the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.