The Associated Press reported that Prakazrel “Pras” Michel faced allegations in a civil forfeiture complaint that he aided a scheme to try to get the US Justice Department to drop an investigation into embezzlement from 1MDB.

Michel has denied this.

The Justice Department says Michel was engaged by the brother of fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low to join the illicit lobbying effort.

According to the report, Michel is alleged to have helped by opening bank accounts under false pretenses to finance the scheme, and Justice Department officials are trying to recover roughly US$38 million from Michel that they say can be connected to that effort.

In November last year, George Higginbotham, a US Justice Department official had pleaded guilty to lobbying for 1MDB, the first person to publicly acknowledge extraneous attempts to pressure US officials to drop a case against 1MDB.

AP reported that Higginbotham was accused of helping in opening bank accounts and creating false loan documents for shell companies.

One of Michel’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, has urged US authorities to drop the charges, saying that the prosecution had not been able to present sufficient allegations of bank fraud, conspiracy and false statements.

Michel said his “name was being dragged through the mud” and that he had never conspired to cheat anyone.