Leonardo DiCaprio recalls private jet party trying to celebrate NYE in two timezones during Fugees trial
Actor claims he performed background checks on Jho Low before accepting money for his film
The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Hollywood actor and producer Leonardo DiCaprio recalled at a court on Tuesday his wild private jet party trying to celebrate New Year’s Eve in two time zones.
He told the court during his testimony at the trial of Prakazrel “Pras” Michel that he flew to Australia with the former Fugee rapper, businessman Jho Low, and a group of other celebrities to celebrate NYE in that time zone and then returned to Las Vegas to try and catch the moment twice in another time zone.
Jho Low is a Malaysian billionaire from whom Michel is accused of taking $100m to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
DiCaprio recalled that he met Mr Low repeatedly for other celebrations as well after initially getting introduced to him at a birthday party in Las Vegas.
“Did you make it in time to celebrate New Year’s?” defence lawyer David Kenner asked the Hollywood star.
“It depends on how you look at it,” DiCaprio replied.
Mr Kenner asked him whether he knew Mr Low’s legal status in the United States. He then proceeded to inform the judge that it is a “central theme of the prosecution” since any foreign donations are banned in the United States for any political campaigning.
Meanwhile, 50-year-old Michel has denied any conspiracy and witness tampering.
DiCaprio was asked by the court to testify about his links to Mr Low. The actor himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors alleged that Michel illegally helped put the Malaysian billionaire’s money into Mr Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and then tried to influence the Trump administration to drop a criminal case against Mr Low.
The Justice Department alleged that in exchange, the rapper pocketed nearly $100m.
Reports said that Mr Low also helped finance DiCaprio’s film The Wolf of Wall Street. They alleged that the actor received gifts from the billionaire, including financial donations to his charity, photographs, first-edition books, and art. But DiCaprio refuted the charge in court.
The actor was asked by the prosecution: “Did you ever receive anything close to tens of millions of dollars separate and apart from The Wolf of Wall Street?” DiCaprio said no.
During the testimony, DiCaprio recalled having a conversation about the Democratic Party in the US. “He [Low] mentioned in passing that he or possibly a group of other partners of his were going to give a significant contribution to the Democratic party... something to the tune of $20 or $30m, to which I basically said, ‘Wow that’s a lot of money’.”
He also claimed that he had enlisted investigators to perform background checks on Mr Low before accepting money for his film to find out whether “the financing was good or not and safe to accept”.
“My understanding, I was given a green light by my team as well as the studio to accept financing from Mr Low,” DiCaprio said. “That means that the background check was fine and he was a legitimate businessperson.”