KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): Individuals who have committed any offence in relation to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will not be protected, as the government is only dealing with IPIC Group, the investment arm of Abu Dhabi, and not individuals, according to Second Minister of Finance (MoF) Datuk Johari bin Abdul Ghani.

"I want to stress, as far as the government is concerned, (where) any individual that (has) basically committed any offence, the Malaysian government will not protect them, we want them to face the legal process, that's the commitment of the government," Johari told reporters in the press conference of Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER)’s 31st national economic briefing.

He said the MOF had taken notes on the civil lawsuits of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on 1MDB issue.

"Perhaps, whatever actions that have been taken by DOJ, they have the right to do so. This is something that happened in their own country.

"On our part, our dealings are only with IPIC Group. That's why today, we have disputes with Abu Dhabi, [while] the rest of [the] individuals mentioned by DOJ, IPIC has to answer for that," he said.

He also said he could not disclose too much details, as the deal is still at the stage of arbitration.

"1MDB is a lesson for the government; we will make sure this thing will not happen again during my time," he said.

To recap, the DOJ had filed civil lawsuits last week to seize over US$1 billion (RM4.08 billion) in assets that it said were the result of US$3.5 billion that was misappropriated from 1MDB.

U.S. attorney-general Loretta Lynch said the US$1 billion in assets were just a portion of the money stolen from 1MDB and laundered to American institutions, in violation of U.S. law.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday that the government is taking the issue seriously, adding it is prepared to extend full cooperation to investigating authorities.

He said that the government wants those named in the U.S. DOJ civil lawsuits to clear their names, to show that there was no misuse of public funds.