The fashion line Kimora Lee Simmons, fashion model, launched three years ago could become a casualty of an international investigation of corruption in Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal.
Simmons — who was discovered at 14 by Karl Lagerfeld — has been married for three years to Tim Leissner, the banker who left Goldman Sachs under a cloud last year after raising $6.5 billion for a Malaysian development fund.
In the US, the FBI could soon look into the fashionista’s funding.
It is widely believed that Leissner financed the launch of his wife’s eponymous fashion line which is known to have an unusually well-funded infrastructure, wrote Page Six.
The FBI and investigators in four other countries are tracing hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly transferred to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his cronies.
Najib has denied any wrong doing in the scandal that has rocked the country’s politics since it was uncovered by the Sarawak Report.
“Goldman Sachs was paid exorbitant fees for selling the bonds,” one lawyer who has followed the case told me.
“The prosecutors, if they do their job, will seek to claw back the commissions.”
Kimora’s fashion line can’t be profitable, no matter how beautiful her designs are, retail experts told Page Six.