Parties involved in the United States Department of Justice's (DOJ) 1MDB-related suits have urged the court to continue with the proceedings.

This followed the DOJ's application some two weeks ago asking for a stay in proceedings to avoid jeopardising an ongoing criminal investigation.

In separate but nearly identical motions submitted by the parties' lawyers, they argued that the move is DOJ's latest tactic to delay proceedings and avoid arguing the case on its merits.

Among others, it said the US government already spent many months trying to keep the claimants from appearing in the case, and then attempt to secure forfeiture of the properties by default by trying to prevent those claims from moving forward.

"Now, the government's effort to indefinitely stay all discovery - and almost everything else about this case too - exposes the reality that the government has no interest in exchanging information with the claimants, respecting claimants' substantive and procedural rights, or moving this case forward at all towards a resolution.

"It is now apparent that the government was crying wolf about potential delays in discovery in order to bolster its efforts to win by default without presenting its case on merits," reads the 19-page document.

The three sets of documents are dated Sept 18 but appeared in the California Central District Court's electronic court system yesterday.

The three motions are each for DOJ's suit seeking the forfeiture of the Viceroy L'Ermitage Beverly Hills property, a separate suit for all business assets related to the property, and a third suit seeking the forfeiture of royalties owed by EMI Music Publishing Group North America Holdings Inc to JW Nile (BVI) Ltd, JCL Media Ltd, and/or Jwnwel Capital Ltd. All three were filed by the same group of lawyers.

The lawyers who filed the motion were acting on behalf LBH Real Estate (Beverly Hills) LLC in the Viceroy property case; LBH, JW Hospitality (VHG US) LLC and JW Hospitality (VHG INTL) Ltd in the Viceroy assets case; and JW Nile (BVI) Ltd in the EMI royalties case.

There are several other claimants involved in these cases, including those that the DOJ had previously named as members of tycoon Jho Low's family. However, none of the other claimants has filed similar motions to date.

DOJ wants 13 suits put on hold

Previously, the DOJ had filed civil forfeiture suits on three separate occasions in a bid to seize properties totalling US$1.7 billion, which it claims are the proceeds of misappropriation from 1MDB. The first round of suits was filed in June 2016, and the other two rounds were filed this year.

However, on Aug 10, the DOJ filed applications on 13 of the 14 suits filed last year, asking the court to put the proceedings on hold.

It said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is conducting a criminal investigation related to 1MDB, and revealing more information in the proceedings could jeopardise the investigation as well as those of jurisdictions outside the US.

"Such disclosures could result in the destruction of evidence, the flight of potential subjects and targets, or the identification and intimidation of potential witnesses," it said.

However, the claimants' lawyers argued in their motion yesterday that DOJ's request is unconstitutional and "improperly broad".

"The government’s overbroad and extraordinary request for a stay of indeterminate duration, during which time the defendant's assets would remain in limbo, should be denied," they argued in their filings.

They said the US government must show that the civil discovery process would actually affect investigations or prosecution, and the stay on proceedings should be time-limited, rather than being indefinite.

They argued that the scope of the stay on proceedings should also be more limited.