He said that initially 15 people, including him, were named in the suit.

However, the names of seven people – former CEOs Hazem Abdul Rahman and Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, former directors Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, Ismee Ismail, Ong Gim Huat and Ashvin Jethanand Valiram, and former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir – were dropped.

“It is clear that under this amended statement of claim, these ‘offenders’ have been removed.

“This raises doubts as to 1MDB’s sincerity in filing this civil action,” he said in his defence statement.

The government, through 1MDB and its subsidiary companies, filed the suit in May last year. It claimed that Najib and others committed fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of duties, breach of statutory duties, and indulged in unjust enrichment.

1MDB had on Feb 8 obtained an injunction to bar Najib and his agents from removing his assets here, of up to US$681 million, pending the outcome of the suit. The court order allowed him to withdraw RM100,000 every month for daily expenses and legal fees.

The company also obtained an order to compel Najib to disclose the value of his assets, locally and abroad, of up to US$681 million, in writing within 14 days of being served the court papers.

The High Court fixed Aug 17 to hear Najib’s bid to set aside 1MDB’s Mareva injunction.

Najib is currently standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The criminal trial will resume on April 18.