Kuala Lumpur (AFP)

The Malaysian prosecution announced on Thursday that the money laundering lawsuit against one of the producers of the Hollywood film "The Wolf of Wall Street" had been dropped after an agreement was reached.

The producer, Riza Aziz, was suspected of having received nearly $ 250 million diverted from the 1MDB fund supposed to contribute to the economic development of Malaysia.

A judge decided to drop the charges against the producer, which does not amount to an acquittal, following a transactional agreement with the government, prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib told AFP.

The prosecutor said "not being able to reveal" the terms of the agreement but clarified that its amount was several million ringgits, knowing that a million ringgits is worth 230,000 dollars.

Producer Riza Aziz, who is also the stepson of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak suspected of being a key player in the looting of the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, was arrested in July 2019.

The plunder of billions of dollars from this sovereign fund, spent on luxury purchases, real estate or various investments by relatives of the former Prime Minister, led to a vast scandal and a series of legal proceedings in the States United States, Europe and Malaysia.

Almost $ 250 million had been deposited in accounts of the production company of Hollywood Red Granite Pictures of which Riza Aziz is co-founder, according to the counts.

In addition to "The Wolf of Wall Street", a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio on a Stock Market scammer released in 2013, Red Granite also produced the film "Dumb and Dumber De" with Jim Carrey.

The scandal surrounding the 1MDB fund contributed to the fall of the Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak, accused of corruption, in May 2018.

Several corruption lawsuits are pending against him as he continues to protest his innocence.

But while the coalition elected after the fall of Najib Razak had encouraged prosecution and attempted to recover the looted money fell, the will of the new Malaysian government to continue this process is in doubt.

© 2020 AFP