Miranda Kerr Turns Over $8.1 Million in Jewelry to the Justice Dept.

Gifts were bought for Australian model with misappropriated funds by Malaysian financier.

June 27, 2017 9:03 am EDT
Mirand Kerr Turns Over $8.1 Million in Jewelry to U.S. Justice Department
Model Miranda Kerr is seen at the 'Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between' Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 1, 2017 in New York City. (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

Diamonds are forever—until you have to hand them over to the U.S. Justice Department. Australian model Miranda Kerr had to do just that with $8.1 million in jewelry, according to Wall Street Journal.

According to the Justice Department, the haul included a $3.8 million 8.88-carat diamond pendant, $2 million matching diamond jewelry set, $1.3 million 11.71-carat heart-shaped diamond, and $1.1 million 11-carat diamond earrings.

The jewelry was bought for Kerr by a Malaysian financier, Jho Low, who is accused of misappropriating funds. The Justice Department trailed the mountains of spending money back to a sovereign-wealth fund named 1Malaysia Development Bhd (or 1MDB).

Along with the jewelry, Low allegedly used the funds to purchase nearly $2 billion in assets, including a $250 million yacht; luxury real estate in London, New York, and Los Angeles; and far stranger purchases—like the money used to back movie Dumb and Dumber To.

Kerr’s move comes a week after Leonardo DiCaprio turned in his own gifts from Low—a $3.2 million Pablo Picasso painting and a $9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat collage.

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