Riza Aziz, a step-son of Malaysia's prime minister and a producer of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” has filed court documents stating he is an “innocent owner” of assets allegedly acquired using money siphoned from the scandal-hit 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund.

In court papers filed quietly last week, various entities connected to Aziz attacked the US Government's attempt to seize real estate properties as part of its $1 billion action targeting alleged money laundering schemes connected to 1MDB.

The state-owned investment fund is the subject of money-laundering probes in at least six countries including the US, Switzerland, Singapore and, most recently, Australia. In recent months, many fines, indictments and jail sentences have been handed down to former bankers over their affiliations with the fund. To read our recent news coverage about the case, click here.

Aziz co-founded Red Granite Pictures, the company that produced Martin Scorsese's blockbuster of 2013, which the US alleged was funded by money stolen from 1MDB.

The US Department of Justice has touted the 1MDB scandal as its largest 'kleptocracy case' to date. Aziz's lawyer, Matthew Schwartz, has criticised it, however, over its failure to include “essential detail” about Aziz's supposed crimes and has tabled a motion to dismiss.

"The alleged beneficial owner of the claimant (and therefore the defendant property), Riza Aziz, is neither alleged to have participated in any transactions involving 1MDB nor even to have knowledge of any transactions involving 1MDB — let alone knowledge of any supposed misappropriation," court documents say.

The motion continues: “Thus, even taking the complaint’s allegations at face value, Mr Aziz plainly did not engage in a money laundering transaction or any other offense. But without identifying the person or persons the government believes to be culpable, it is impossible to test the adequacy of the government's allegations..."

Last July, the DoJ went to court to seize the rights to The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as other assets it alleged were acquired with cash illicitly obtained from 1MDB.

Later this month, Red Granite Pictures is scheduled to file its response to the US government's attempts at seizure.