US suit piles pressure on Najib

Singapore

MALAYSIANS are demanding Prime Minister Najib Razak step up and be transparent about scandal-ridden 1MDB after the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) all but named him in a civil suit seeking the seizure of over US$1 billion worth of assets.

The amount is less than a third of the US$3.5 billion that it claims was misappropriated from the state- owned development fund and used to purchase luxury properties in the US and UK, a yacht, a Bombardier jet and paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.

The filing of the suit after months of painstaking investigations has put Mr Najib squarely under the spotlight although his inner circle remains steadfast in his defence.

Attorney-General Mohd Apandi expressed his concerns at the insinuations and allegations made against Mr Najib, and was quick to "clarify that at no point" in the DOJ claim "is the prime minister named as a defendant or has been alleged to have committed any criminal wr…