(June 27): Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr has surrendered US$8.1 million ($11.2 million) worth of jewellery to the US Justice Department, reported Dow Jones.
This comes a week after lawsuits filed by the US DoJ said it was purchased for her by Malaysian financier Jho Low with allegedly stolen funds.
Kerr isn’t a defendant in the lawsuits.
The department filed civil-forfeiture lawsuits this year and last year seeking assets it alleges were bought with money misappropriated from a Malaysian sovereign-wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd or 1MDB.
The jewellery is among more than US$1.7 billion worth of assets the Justice Department seeks. The assets also include a US$250 million yacht, stakes in companies and luxury real estate in London, New York and Los Angeles.
1MDB has denied any wrongdoing and said it has found no evidence any of its money was misappropriated.
Malaysia has also closed all but one of its domestic investigations into 1MDB with no wrongdoing found.
Low, who hasn’t been accused of a crime, said in a statement after the latest asset forfeiture cases were filed that the US government’s “latest move continues its inappropriate efforts to seize assets despite not having proven that any improprieties have occurred.”
Kerr was said to have dated Low for about a year in 2014. The Justice Department says that during that time he gave her four gifts of jewellery. Last month, Kerr was married Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel.
Low bought one of the pieces, a 11.72 carat, heart-shaped diamond pendant, as a Valentine’s Day gift for Kerr from the well-known jeweller Lorraine Schwartz, the civil forfeiture complaint says. The final cost was US$1.3 million, it said.
He also gave her an 8.88-carat diamond pendant worth US$3.8 million, the complaint says.
