U.S. may take movie, music roles in Malaysia fund asset seizure

By David Ingram NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government may become a movie and music industry player, at least temporarily, after moving to seize $1 billion in assets that prosecutors said were bought with money looted from the Malaysian state development fund. The 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” and an interest in the rights of EMI Music Publishing are among the targets of civil lawsuits that are filled with allegations that Malaysian officials, their relatives and associates laundered the fund’s money and hid it in property, artwork and luxury goods in the United States. Seizures of assets by government authorities are fairly common, but they more typically involve sports cars, yachts and jewelry bought with drug trafficking proceeds or with profits from white-collar crime.