Leonardo DiCaprio accused of having Marlon Brando's missing Oscar

Leonardo DiCaprio has Marlon Brando’s missing Oscar, and was given it as a gift from his Malaysian production partners who are currently under investigation for massive fraud, according to reports.

The Hollywood Reporter says that the statuette, which went missing in 2004 prior to Brando’s death, was bought by Red Granite Pictures – the Malaysian production company which helped bring ‘The Wolf of Wall Street to the screen – from a New Jersey memorabilia dealer for $600,000.

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It was then gifted to DiCaprio for his 38th birthday, and now reportedly resides on his mantelpiece.

Avra Douglas, who is the Brando estate’s archivist told the movie industry magazine that the late actor himself was trying to locate the gong – won for his role in ‘On The Waterfront’ – prior to his death, but hit a series of dead ends.

It was long-rumoured, and later disputed, that Brando had thrown the statue out of his window, and his son Christopher had later retrieved it and used it as a hammer in his tree house.

“It would be great to get it back,” said Douglas.

DiCaprio’s lack of an Oscar, up until he won for his role in ‘The Revenant’ earlier this year, had been something of a running joke in Hollywood.

But the accusations swirling around the actor and his relationship with Malaysian businessmen Jho Low and Riza Aziz, stepson of the Malaysian president Najib Razak, are doubtless becoming increasingly less amusing for him.

Low – often referred to in the press as a ‘drinking buddy’ of DiCaprio – and Aziz are at the centre of a massive $3 billion embezzlement scandal.

They are accused of stealing money from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, which is meant to pay for economic development in the country.

Though DiCaprio is not accused of any wrongdoing, the US Justice Department is investigating claims that millions of dollars were laundered via Low and Aziz’s lavish donations to the actor’s charitable foundation.

Robert De Niro, it now emerges, has also mixed in the same circles, attending a ceremony in the Malaysian president’s honour earlier this year, and visiting him in Kuala Lumpur.

It’s claimed that Low has also given charitable donations to De Niro’s Tribeca Film Institute.

De Niro was blunt when asked about it by THR.

Asked if he was aware of the scandal, he said: “I don’t care whether my name is associated with it. I didn’t do anything.

“I’m aware of it, but I don’t give a sh*t. When I have to tell something to somebody, I’ll answer to them and that will be it.”

Some charities are calling for DiCaprio to pay the ‘ill-gotten’ donations back to the wealth fund.

Image credits: Getty