Leonardo DiCaprio had to return Marlon Brando's Oscar, and the financier who gave it to him as a birthday present is now reportedly a fugitive on the run

• Last year, Leonardo DiCaprio handed over to the US government Marlon Brando's best actor Oscar that had previously been gifted to him.

• According to The New York Times, Jho Low, a Malaysian financier who gave DiCaprio the Oscar, stole billions of dollars from a Malaysian investment fund.

• A report by The Times this week said US investigators are in the process of recovering things purchased by Low, but have been slowed because he is in hiding.

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Leonardo DiCaprio was given Marlon Brando's 1955 best actor Oscar, which Brando won for "On the Waterfront," as a birthday gift, but had to return it last year when it was revealed to be involved in a corruption scandal.

This week, new details emerged in a New York Times report about Jho Low, the Malaysian financier who gifted Brando's Oscar to DiCaprio after he won it for $US600,000 at an auction. Low stole billions of dollars from a Malaysian government investment fund, called the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund (1MDB), and is a fugitive on the run from US investigators, according to The Times.

According to The Times, Low is believed to be in hiding in China, and the US took charge of the investigation because it's been "been cracking down on the flow of illegal money through the American financial system."

Court documents reviewed by The Times revealed that several federal agencies are in the process of recovering items Low purchased, including $US8 million worth of jewellery Low gave Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr.

According to the book "Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World," which was released earlier this year, Kerr handed over the jewellery to the US government last year. But according to the Times report, another gift to Kerr, a piano in her home, is causing problems because it won't fit through the doors.

The recovery process has been slowed, according to The Times, because Low is in hiding, and he and his associates "have denied wrongdoing and are challenging the forfeitures."