There are now two ongoing US lawsuits over 1MDB’s stolen funds, but Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s threat to sue the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which brought to light the alleged theft remains just a threat, said veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin.

He was responding to the latest US class action suit brought by Matthias Chang, the former political secretary to ex-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and Salor state assemblyperson Husam Musa to recover 1MDB's funds.

“More than a year had passed but Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has yet to fulfill his threat to sue the WSJ for supposedly defaming him.

“Instead, two civil suits have been field against a number of individuals linked to the 1MDB scandal,” he said in a blog posting today.

Chang and Husam in their suit field on Thursday, on behalf of the “Malaysian citizenry”, are seeking the recovery of 1MDB funds and damages from those who had abused the money.

Among those named include Najib’s stepson Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz and Penang-born billionaire Jho Low.

This followed another civil suit initiated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) last month which claimed US$3.5 billion of 1MDB funds had been stolen and moved to seize US$1 billion in assets acquired using the stolen money.

The DOJ said at least US$731 million of this money went into the bank accounts of “Malaysian Official 1" including the US$681 million deposits which were widely publicised last year.

This is the exact sum the WSJ reported entered into Najib’s personal bank accounts which was investigated by Malaysian authorities.

Malaysian attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali later cleared Najib on the grounds that the money was from a member of the Arab royal family, but the DOJ believes the money originated from 1MDB.

Najib had in July last year threatened to sue WSJ after it published the allegation, but the defamation suit never materialised.