Kerr’s spokesman said the model handed the jewellery, including an 11.72 carat heart-shaped pendant, to the US Justice Department a week after lawsuits said it was bought for her using funds misappropriated from 1MDB, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
She is understood to have been in a relationship with the Malaysian businessman for about a year in 2014.
“From the start of the inquiry, Miranda Kerr cooperated fully and pledged to turn over the gifts of jewellery to the government,” her spokesman said, adding that she will “continue to assist with the inquiry in any way she can”.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Kerr is not the only celebrity to have been caught up in the worldwide 1MDB scandal that saw more than $4.5bn belonging to the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund allegedly misappropriated by high-level officials and their associates.
Low also bought a Picasso painting for actor Leonardo DiCaprio in 2014 for an estimated £3.2m.
The actor’s spokesman said that DiCaprio had “initiated the return” of gifts he had received from financiers connected to 1MDB after authorities made allegations against people involved financing his film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.
The spokesman said that DiCaprio had accepted the gifts to raise funds in an auction for his environmental foundation.
Neither Kerr nor DiCaprio have been accused of any crime.
Jho Low
In March, it was reported that US authorities were planning to file criminal charges against the financier, however the WSJ said the plans could change or be dropped as the probe continues.
The paper added that Singaporean authorities were also building a potential criminal case against Low, having identified him as a ‘person of interest’.
Investigations found that $153m was transferred from a Coutts Zurich account of Good Star, a firm controlled by Low, to the BSI Singapore account of Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Investment Corp, which Jho Low could access.
Three days later, the money was moved to a BSI account held by Jho Low’s father, Low Hock Peng.
From Low Hock Peng’s account, $110m was transferred to a Swiss account of Selune, a firm beneficially owned by Jho Low.
When the transactions were questioned by BSI Compliance, Jho Low responded via email that he had decided to give his father the money as a matter of cultural respect but his father had decided to accept only a token sum and return the rest of the money to his son.
BSI Bank’s branch in Singapore was shut down by the country’s financial regulator in May 2016.
