DoJ action over 1MDB politically motivated - Apandi

Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali today described the latest United States Department of Justice (DoJ) civil lawsuits related to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) as politically motivated.

He said the DoJ had never made any formal application to the Malaysian Attorney-General's Chambers to obtain further information on the claims that 1MDB funds had been used to purchase the US$540 million (RM2.3 billion) worth of assets in the United States that the DoJ wanted to seize.

"If they request (any information pertaining to 1MDB), we are obliged to assist. So, I concluded that their action is political in nature.

"It is believed that the DoJ action is based on information provided by a handful of Malaysians," he said when met by reporters at the Tok Awang Gagah Family Day here.

The event was attended by about 800 descendants of the family of Tok Awang Gagah whose real name was Awang Kamarudin. He was one of the most feared warriors in Kelantan in the 1920s. Mohamed Apandi is a great grandson of Awang Kamarudin.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang was quoted as saying in an open letter to all political parties recently that history had taught that foreign interference in the internal affairs of a country would only result in disaster.

-- BERNAMA