Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali should be heading to the US to make a special submission in the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) civil lawsuits related to 1MDB, said DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

Lim’s advice comes after Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said said that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has no plans to send legal representatives to the US to observe the DOJ’s suits.

“Apandi should make a special trip to the US to make a special submission to the American courts that actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr were wrong and misguided in handing over the multi-million dollar gifts from (controversial tycoon) Jho Low to the DOJ,” he said in a statement today.

It is very irresponsible of the government and it shows professional negligence on the part of the AGC to not send any legal representation in the DOJ suits, he added.

On June 16, the DOJ had filed their third and latest forfeiture lawsuit on 1MDB-linked assets, putting the total of the allegedly misappropriated figure at US$4.5 billion.

The department is seeking to seize US$1.7 billion in assets purportedly acquired using funds stolen from 1MDB.

It was also reported that DiCaprio had turned over an Oscar won by Marlon Brando to US investigators.

He had also initiated the return of other, unidentified items that he said he accepted as gifts for a charity auction. The gifts had allegedly originated from people connected to the 1MDB state fund.

Shortly afterwards, Kerr also reportedly turned over jewellery worth more than US$8.1 million to the DOJ.

The DOJ had alleged in their lawsuit that the jewellery had been purchased for her by Low with funds misappropriated from 1MDB.