, the jurors, via witness accounts, were taken on kaleidoscopic trips to rarified places — to outlandishly extravagant parties with the rich and famous in Las Vegas and other hot spots; to the inner cloisters of the White House and the Justice Department; and to a secret overseas meeting between a top Chinese domestic security official and an admitted multimillion-dollar U.S. influence peddler.“It is not complicated,” prosecutor Sean F. Mulryne told the panel in his closing argument.
Prosecutors said Low, now 41, used part of his embezzled fortune to finance the Scorsese-directed film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which cost $100 million. DiCaprio, who made the production deal in 2012 and starred in the Oscar-nominated movie, testified that he thought his then-buddy “Jho Low” was a legitimate, uber-successful businessman. DiCaprio, who jetted to parties around the globe with Low, has not been accused of wrongdoing, nor has Scorsese.
That amounted to roughly $2 million in donations. Michél testified that he pocketed the rest of the $20 million because he considered all of the money to be legitimately his — a payment from Low for the job of arranging the photo. He said the “straw donors” were friends of his who bought tickets with money he gave them.
By 2017, Low was under investigation in the United States and elsewhere for his alleged involvement in looting Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, known as 1MDB, and he again turned to Michél for help, according to prosecutors. Businesswoman Nickie Lum Davis, an acquaintance of Michél’s, introduced him to an associate of hers, Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser with close ties to the Trump administration.
Broidy said the official promised that if Guo was deported, China would release detained U.S. citizens and possibly enter into a new cooperation agreements with the United States. But back in Washington, Broidy failed in his intense lobbying campaign to have Guo extradited. Davis eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA. After Broidy pleaded guilty to the same offense, Trump pardoned him.
Michél had been defending himself against allegations of money laundering, campaign finance violations, witness tampering and other charges. The trial featured testimony from political figures and Hollywood stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio.