Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences

This article investigates international kleptocracy through the lens of one specific case, the Red Granite financing scandal from 2016. Red Granite, a film financing company run by two Malaysian financiers and a businessman from Kentucky, collaborated with Leonardo DiCaprio to create what would become Martin Scorsese’s film The Wolf of Wall Street. However, the Department of Justice discovered that the funding for the film may have been illicit. The subsequent embezzlement scandal involved the investigation of stolen funds from the financial fund 1Malaysia Development Berhard, which was owned by the Malaysian government for the purpose of national economic development. The scandal further demonstrates how domestic legal initiatives are necessary to fight the complex networks of global corruption that too often hinder developing countries’ economic growth.