When then attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali declared in a January 2016 press conference that then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had committed no wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal, it appeared to be the end of any major headaches for the then prime minister regarding the investment firm.

But six months later, in July, one of 1MDB's business partners, Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), dragged 1MDB to the International Arbitration Court over a US$6.5 billion dispute.

Then, a month later, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped a bombshell when it filed civil forfeiture suits aimed at seizing billions allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.

While Najib's involvement was veiled under the Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) codename, his stepson Riza Aziz was left exposed as the DOJ sought to seize funds channelled to his movie company Red Granite Pictures.

A series of phone recordings sent to the MACC anonymously earlier this month revealed that after the DOJ suits, Najib had made a series of calls while his wife Rosmah Mansor grew irate with the situation with the MACC...