Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan maintained that Najib Abdul Razak was not subject to the 1MDB investigation as the probe did not in any way implicate the prime minister.

He said this in response to the United States Department of Justice action with regard to 1MDB, the government investment fund.

"If there are any guilty parties in this investigation, they should be penalised. The important thing is that in the released documents, the prime minister is not involved in the investigation.

"In fact, the prime minister's name is not mentioned at all," he told a press conference during his inaugural visit to the offices of Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju), Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) and Talent Corp Malaysia Bhd in Petaling Jaya today.

Abdul Rahman said the probe was a civil suit, a civil investigation, as the US Department of Justice was now in the midst of trying to convince the court to confiscate the assets.

"The US Department of Justice is only investigating the assets said to have been bought with illicit funds," he said.

- Bernama