Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad reiterated today that only an idiot will believe he can influence US Department of Justice (DOJ) to initiate civil forfeiture suits against 1MDB.

In his latest blog posting, Mahathir sardonically said that he was flattered by claims that he, a powerless man, could instruct DOJ to do something.

"If I could issue a directive to a US agency, then someone would have been arrested and charged for stealing billions of dollars long ago. Equitable punishment would have been imposed on such a person," he said.

"Unfortunately, I, as the former prime minister of 'toothless' Malaysia, do not have such influence over any agency in the US, and also in Malaysia," he said...