Leonardo Di Caprio is a great actor but maybe a poor judge of character.
Today, Lisa Schiff, his art advisor — for him and his foundation — was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for fraud.
Leo doesn’t learn his lesson.
In 2000, Dana Giacchetto — his best friend and investment counselor — went to prison for running a Ponzi scheme. He bilked his clients — including CAA’s Mike Ovitz, Tobey Maguire, the group Phish, and many others — to the tune of $14 million. (Many years later, Giacchetto committed suicide.)
In 2013, New York art dealer Helly Nahmad — still Leo’s pal — went to prison in a gambling scheme that was portrayed in the Jessica Chastain movie, “Molly’s Game.” He pleaded guilty to one federal count of operating an illegal sports gambling business. He was released after four months of a 12-month sentence.
And let’s not forget DiCaprio’s involvement in the 1MDB Malaysian finance scandal that involved ripping off public funds to back movies. Here’s a taste of that story.
Also, we still have no accounting or reporting for Leonardo’s charitable foundation. All the transactions are kept secret because the LDF’s records are hidden within a larger charity canvas.
The ironic thing here is that Leo has been in so many gangster movies, or films about criminals. He doesn’t seem to get it!
If Lisa Schiff is lucky, Leo will visit her with a screwdriver baked into a cake!