Riza Aziz and the Beverly Hills mansion
An 11,000-square-foot walled Beverly Hills mansion may have bought with money misappropriated from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd fund, a state fund created in 2009 to benefit the Malaysian people.
The property, at 912 Hillcrest Road, was purchased for $17.5 million by Riza Aziz, a film producer and the stepson of Malaysian leader Najib Razak. That money was part of a larger $50 million in funds allegedly diverted from the state investment fund, the Wall Street Journal reported. Aziz allegedly spent the rest of the money on a duplex apartment at the Park Laurel condominium in New York.
Aziz, who is now the subject of an FBI probe, has denied the allegations.
The Hillcrest property is currently under renovation and has a 120-foot-long pool, a projection room, a gourmet kitchen and five bedrooms.
Aziz bought the property from a friend, Malaysian businessman Jho Low, a party boy who’s been linked with Paris Hilton. Low reportedly owns a home in the Bird Streets area of L.A., which he bought for $39 million in 2012, the Journal said.
Aziz is perhaps best known as one of the producers behind “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which starred Leonard DiCaprio. [WSJ] — Katherine Clarke