Wall Street Greed / Malaysian Money – EXPOSE!
Disrespectful? The Malaysian funded depiction of greed and debauchery on Wall Street was launched on Christmas Day in the US.
The wife of the PM, Rosmah Mansor, is apparently advocating that
every Malaysian school child should be shown the newly released Leonardo
di Caprio film, The Wolf of Wall Street, in order to warn them against
greed and immorality.
One wonders how she proposes to get around the fact that the film has
been X-rated owing to the violence and sex scenes, which extend to drug
taking and mass
orgies?
The makers of the film reportedly tempted director Martin Scorcese
onto the project by allowing him a free hand to make the movie as hard
core as he liked, thereby limiting audiences in America to over 17
unless accompanied by a suitable adult.
There is also the question of cost.
Riza Aziz (left) is reportedly the money behind Red Granite Pictures
In some schools in Sarawak children sleep side by side on the floor under leaking roofs, owing to cash restraints.
Yet mass screenings of a top new movie would presumably involve paying out scarce funds to the production company.
Perhaps the powerful wife of the PM figures that at least the
production company is Malaysian owned, so that the public money would be
supporting a local enterprise?
More specifically, the production company behind The Wolf on Wall Street, Red Granite Pictures, is
headed and financed by her own son Riza Aziz (Riza Shahriz Bin Abdul Aziz).
Red Granite was founded by Aziz in 2010 and has already bankrolled a
number of big name projects, including ‘Friends With Kids’ and ‘Dumb and
Dumber To ‘, as well as The Wolf of Wall Street, which had been dropped
by mainstream studios.
In the case of The Wolf of Wall Street the reasons for dropping the
movie was its disgusting content – Scorcese was heckled at a recent
Academy showing, according to reports, with the words “
shame on you“!
Copious sex, drugs and violence – movie bankrollers Red Granite include Riza Aziz (right)
Where did the money come from?
How Riza Aziz emerged as a major bankroller of Hollywood movies is of
obvious interest. Could it be linked to his family position and circle
of associates?
Jho Low the partying ‘billionaire’
It has already been noted that Najib Razak’s step-son, is a close
associate of the controversial and flamboyant financier Jho Low (Low
Taek Jho) a Penang business graduate educated in the UK and US, who has
acted as the front man in a number of eyebrow-raising business deals
linked both to Taib Mahmud in Sarawak and Najib’s pet project the 1
Malaysia Development Berhad.
Indeed, Jho Low’s series of notorious antics, distributing Crystal
Champagne around the world’s top nightclubs and lavishing vast sums on
famous women like Paris Hilton and Taiwanese pop star Elva Hsiao,
suggest a remarkably similar animal to the character supposedly deplored
in the film, the jailed Wall Street financier Jordan Belfort (although
Sarawak Report would not wish to imply that any of the
misconduct depicted in the film applies to Mr Low).
Low was prominent at the launch party for the film, posing next to
Riza Aziz and his partner in Red Granite Pictures, the Kentuky ‘private
equity cowboy’, Joey Mcfarland, on stage at the event, which will
further fuel speculation over possible links.
Red Granite Picture’s Riza Aziz and Joey Mcfarland with finance ‘whiz kid’ Jho Low at the launch of Wolf Of Wall Street
Mega Finance linked to Malaysia
The Hollywood coverage of the fast trajectory of Red Granite Pictures
from nowhere in 2010 to a “top company to watch” in just three years
has made no bones about the supposedly deep pockets of Riza Aziz, widely
described as the ‘son of the Malaysian Prime Minister’.
This was how the New York Magazine’s ‘Vulture’ section put it back in 2012:
Reported in the New York Magazine
“For days now, talent agencies have buzzed with the
news that Leonardo DiCaprio might be finally committing to star in The
Wolf of Wall Street for director Martin Scorsese, a project that was
first reported exclusively by Vulture almost a year ago today. Then,
earlier this morning, Deadline carried the news that the funding had at
last been locked into place, courtesy of Wall Street big-shots
themselves: Riza Aziz, a former HSBC investment banker from London, and
Joey McFarland, a private equity cowboy from Kentucky. Their Red Granite
Pictures will be fully financing the feature adaptation of
Jordan Belfort’s memoir of his boozy, debauchery-rich journey to
multimillionaire in the Reagan eighties to federal convict..”[Vulture 3/15/12]
The
Hollywood Reporter
described Red Granite Picture’s launch party in Cannes as “one of the
hottest parties in years”, describing the up-coming Wolf of Wall Street
as a $100 million dollar film. They boast a rare interview with Aziz,
which for Malaysians provides some fascinating information:
“Red Granite was formed by Riza Aziz — the 35-year-old son of Malaysian Prime Minster Tun Abdul Razak and among the new generation of film financiers flocking to Hollywood — andJoey McFarland,
40… In one of the few interviews they’ve given, Aziz and McFarland,
both with a background in finance, spoke with The Hollywood
Reporter about how they’ve spent the last year, their plans for the
company and their determination to stay on budget with Wolf…..
Aziz: We’d like to make three to five films a
year, with one tentpole and two or three films with more modest budgets
in the $20 million to $40 million range.
THR: How much money are you backed by?
McFarland: We do not talk about that.
Aziz: I will say that I have money invested in
the company. It shows that I have skin in the game and am committed from
a financial point of view. We also have a group of investors, mainly
from the Middle East and Asia.
THR: What does your father think of your new venture?
Aziz: I have leeway, but he likes to know that the projects we do have pedigree.[Hollywood Reporter]
Sarawak Report suggests that the above remarks by Najib’s step-son
imply strongly that his money is family money and that he is to an
extent accountable to his ‘father’ the Prime Minister, who gives him
‘leeway’.
Aziz (left) in a family pose with Rosmah and siblings
If Malaysia was blessed with a free media this would be enough to
provoke a barrage of questions as to exactly how the son of Rosmah
Mansor has acquired these hundreds of millions of dollars to flush
through major Hollywood movies?
Because, if the money is Najib’s, how did the PM get to be so rich?
This is unlikely to be a comfortable subject for the Malaysian BN
leader, who is heavily caught up in the Scorpene Submarine kickback
scandal that is soon due to appear in a French court over the payments
of €119million to a Malaysian company run by his personal negotiator on
the deal, Razak Baginda.
Alternatively, there is a lot of reference in the Hollywood Press to
Mr Aziz’s own personal fortune, allegedly made as an investment banker
in the UK. This is how Riza Aziz described his money-making career as
an investment banker to the Hollywood Reporter:
THR: Riza, you come from a political dynasty. How did you get from Malaysia to Hollywood?
Aziz: My background is in finance and I was in
London for close to 10 years. I took a sabbatical from all the chaos
that was happening in 2008 and decided to travel the world. I came to
the U.S. and was offered the opportunity to get involved in a lot of
different things business-wise, and one of them was to be involved in a
film with some friends. From that one project, more kept coming in, so
we decided to have a company. We began building the team and I brought
Joey in at an early stage.
So could Aziz have made the money himself?
Sarawak Report has researched Riza Aziz’s banking career after
leaving the London School of Economics in the year 2000. It appears
that he worked with the management consultants KPMG for two years till
2002 and then at HSBC London from 2005 until the financial crash in
2008:
Multi-million dollar investment banker’s CV?
According to the Financial Services Authority, Riza Aziz was employed
in a relatively minor role at HSBC for five years, although Aziz
himself says he resigned in 2008. It is a perfectly respectable CV, but
for a man who didn’t inherit family money from his mother or father
(who worked as a bureaucrat) his ‘investment banking career’ does not
explain the source of his finances.
‘Investment banker’, Riza Aziz
Yet flush with cash the young Malaysian most undoubtedly now is,
raising comment even in the capitalists’ capital of New York, where he
recently bought a flash 7 bedroom home for $33.5 million in a smart zone
of town.
Big spending Aziz makes no secret of his connections in Malaysia
Reports on the purchase once again refer to the unconvincing ‘investment banker’ explanation for Aziz’s money:
“Aziz, who reportedly makes his money as an
investment banker, has been pegged as a producer to watch. He is one of a
new generation of film financiers making their mark in Hollywood,
according to a recent story in Variety.” [The Real Deal]
Mystery Malaysian investment – the Jho Low connection?
However, other Hollywood newspapers speak of a separate form of income entirely, in the form of third party investors.
Big money buy outs of movie projects that other studios decided were too dangerous to handle
For example, The Los Angeles Times refers to “undisclosed investors in the Middle East and Asia”.
If so, these investors are mighty trusting.
Red Granite Picture’s business model is one that may very well bring
success, if it bets on the right movies. However, it clearly demands an
ability to be able to risk enormous sums of money up-front.
The LA Times repeats the narrative that Red Pictures buys up
promising production projects that other studios have dropped, because
they have become too fraught and dangerous:
“Where movie studios see trouble, Red Granite Pictures sees opportunities”, the paper says. It continues:
“The new finance and distribution company’s business plan is both contrary and simple: Make the films the studios don’t.
Among its first projects are Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall
Street,” which comes out Wednesday, and next year’s “Dumb and Dumber
To,” the intentionally misspelled sequel to the 1994 comedy.
On the surface, those pictures don’t exactly seem like the sort that a major studio would cast aside.
But both were complicated projects, fraught with thorny issues.
Red Granite’s founders, Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland, said they thrive
in these sorts of scenarios.
“One of our sweet spots is movies that have died in the studios —
movies that are just great product that everyone was hot on but for
some reason or another just didn’t make it to the greenlight stage,”
said McFarland,41, a Louisville, Ky., native who is Red Granite’s vice chairman. [Los Angeles Times 24/12/13]
It all gives the impression of young men with breath-taking self-confidence and more importantly
money to burn. Co-producer Joey McFarland has
confirmed that the money comes not thanks to him, but Riza Aziz.
Joey Mcfarland’s movie ambitions were made possible by Malaysian money and Riza Aziz
The recent LA Times
article continues:
“Every movie is different,” said Aziz, 37, who is the
son of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. “We are very flexible in
the model we [can] pursue.”
Red Granite raises money from a pool of undisclosed investors in the Middle East and Asia,
and finances its movies on a one-off basis. The company is able to
greenlight a picture without a distribution deal in place. But because
it doesn’t have a fund it can tap, Red Granite must convince its
investors that an individual project is worth the risk, rather than
having the comfort of money to underwrite an entire slate.”
It is surely interesting for Malaysians to know that the PM’s
step-son has such access to enormous funds for such enormous
risks. There is talk in KL that a number of Malaysian companies are
among those who have been encouraged to put money into Wolf of Wall
Street. One can only speculate as to why they might have felt encouraged
to do so.
Meanwhile, it also seems valid to ask whether the peculiar financial
background of Aziz and Rosmah’s close friend, the 28 year old Jho Low
(described as a “billionaire” in a number of American news reports), be
linked to this financial muscle?
The flamboyant financier’s own interest in the movies and friendship with Di Caprio certainly
pre-dates Red Granite Pictures.
‘International Man of Mystery’
Back in 2009 The Star Newspaper reported:
“He [Low] has been trying to convince his Hollywood
friends like Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx and Leonardo di Caprio to
use Malaysia as a location for movies.”[Star
In which case was it the connection with Low that brought his friend Leonardo di Caprio and his film project about a '
modern day Caligula' to Red Granite Pictures and Riza Aziz?
Partying Paris Hilton at San Tropez
If so, it throws a new perspective onto Jho Low’s
links with
Najib Razak’s pet project 1MDB Malaysia, the development bank, which
has raised billions through undisclosed, private bonds arranged by,
amongst others,
Goldman Sachs.
1MDB’s investments have been increasingly controversial, focusing
mainly on buying up ageing power companies, which appear to be of
questionable value in developing the state of Malaysia.
One of the investors involved in 1MDB is the low profile Middle Eastern venture
Petro-Saudi, who were also the buyers when the Taib family sold out of their controversial stake in UBG bank back in 2011.
Jho Low himself had earlier become involved in UBG, coming onto the board as a
Director in 2008 after a major share purchase, on behalf of the Abu Dhabi owned company Majestic Masterpiece.
The young Penang born financier makes much of his fantastic
connections,
both in Hollywood and the Middle East (particularly Abu Dhabi),
allegedly made through networking as a Harrow schoolboy and at Wharton
Business School in the US.
But it is his
ostentatious high living that has mainly brought Jho Low to the attention of the Malaysian public. It was he who apparently topped the
record for high spending in a New York nightclub, buying champagne for all the assembled guests.
Jho Low also astonished onlookers with the sheer
lavishness of a party put on for a girlfriend on a yacht in Taiwan and again drew attention when he partied Paris
Hilton with jaw dropping extravagance.
So, could Jho Low be the organiser assisting in the financing of Red
Granite Pictures and is that why he was so prominent at the launch and
at Leonardo di Caprio’s recent birthday bash?
One of the ‘billionaires’, 20 something Jho Low owns Jynwell Capital
In which case, many may wonder if the link to the top political
players in Malaysia and friendship with the PM’s step-son might account
for Jho Low’s easy access to investment income or indeed if he is the
front man for others?
Court action
Meanwhile, it is not all praise from the Hollywood establishment. One
major production company, Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA),
is suing Red Granite Pictures for a breach of covenant over the other
major movie it has ‘bought out of trouble’, the sequel to the popular
90s comedy Dumb and Dumber.
The on-going case has been widely covered in the media and MPCA is
far from complimentary about the skills and know-how of the brash
newcomers who bought up their original idea:
“using money from the Malaysian PM’s family to squeeze them out”..
In their legal deposition the veteran producers Steve Stabler and
Brad Krevoy who own MPCA have harsh words for Aziz and Mcfarland, who
they say owe them hundreds of thousands for the original work on the
film:
“McFarland and [Aziz] lack the experience necessary to successfully produce motion pictures themselves. Although Red Granite apparently has family money from [Aziz],
Red Granite will not succeed with money alone because McFarland and
[Aziz]‘s experience producing motion pictures during their short tenure
in the industry consists of cavorting at nightclubs with Paris Hilton
and making dinner reservations at posh nightclubs in New York and Los
Angeles.” [Legal deposition against Red Granite Pictures]
“Macfarland and Aziz’s misconduct and hubris will cause Red Granite to crash and burn”
It is an attack that strengthens the apparent links with Jho Low.
Malaysians will be interested to see that the very parties attended by
Jho Low appear to have also been linked to Riza Aziz, according to this
deposition.
Surely, in the name of accountability and transparency Malaysians are
due a clear explanation as to the links between the two men and whether
Najib Razak is involved?
Appealing to greed and envy?
This is not least because of the large and controversial public loans
that have been raised on behalf of Najib (who is also Finance Minister)
and his 1MDB development bank, in which Jho Low is so widely reported
to have been involved.
Glamourising greed?
It remains to finally point out that not everyone is likely to
interpret the film as a moral lesson, in the manner apparently suggested
by Rosmah Mansor.
In fact, Wolf of Wall Street is likely to be a success for the very
reason that it glamourises greed, high spending, ostentation and extreme
debauchery.
People will be flocking to watch Leonardo di Caprio making billions
in corrupt deals and indulging in immoral behaviour, not to be taught
the evils of big money but to escape into a make-believe world of
unlimited wealth.
Films like this, it is widely argued, do not bring a Christmas
message. To the contrary they are corrupting and they encourage more
people to try their luck in the world of unscrupulous finance.
This is how the magazine
GQ sums up the project:
‘glamour’ of greed
“When Wall Street came out in 1987, it famously inspired certain
people to go into banking, despite its deplorable subject matter. With
that in mind, the impressionable might want to stay away from Martin
Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street: from the trailer alone, there’s
enough ostentatious displays of wealth to drive another financial
crisis. Strippers, dwarves, Ferraris, Jags, $26,000 meals (“it was the
sides”) and enough money to throw off yachts and still have plenty
spare.
The performances also look incredible, with Jonah Hill
particularly eye-catching as Leonardo DiCaprio’s naïve assistant.
Consider next year’s Oscar race well underway.”
Quite so. As the box office profits roll in for this production,
based on greed and immorality, Red Granite Pictures will stand charged
of exploiting and glamourising greed, not confronting it.
Given that ill-gotten wealth, ostentatious living and mysterious
business links underpin so much of Malaysia’s ruling BN regime, it seems
a suitable topic for Red Granite’s first major foray into the film
business.
Although, that irony is doubtless entirely lost on the famously extravagant Rosmah Mansor.
With Adam Scott from Red Granite’s first money spinner “Friends With Kids”
WE
are relieved that major elections at national and party levels are
over. Thankfully they were conducted under peaceful conditions, although
many would have preferred more “free and fair” elections.
