A United States court has granted a stay on the US Department of Justice's application to put on hold its civil forfeiture suits on assets allegedly purchased using funds misappropriated from 1MDB.

The DOJ, last month, asked for a stay in the civil proceedings to avoid jeopardising an ongoing criminal investigation.

"The court sees no reason to doubt the government’s claim that a criminal investigation is ongoing into the underlying money laundering allegations that form the basis for all of these civil forfeiture cases," read a court document signed by US district judge of the US District Court for the Central District of California Dale S Fischer.

The court noted that the DOJ had stated how the disclosure of facts in the cases could reveal investigative methods of the investigation, subject witnesses and informants to intimidation or retaliation and raise the potential for evidence destruction...