Jho, who remains in hiding, and his family have been accused by the US of acquiring hundreds of millions of dollars of assets using money siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

A US federal judge has approved a plan proposed by the Department of Justice and a New York developer to sell Manhattan's Park Lane Hotel, part-owned by Low Taek Jho, the Malaysian financier at the epicenter of probes into 1MDB.

The sale is part of a plan to remove Jho from the hotel's ownership group. Jho, who remains in hiding, and his family have been accused by the US of acquiring hundreds of millions of dollars of assets using money siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, Malaysia's scandal-hit state-owned investment fund. In recent months, multiple indictments, fines and jail sentences have been handed down to nefarious former bankers over their affiliations with the fund. 

US District Court Judge Dale Fischer earlier this week approved the plan, proposed by Steven Witkoff and the DoJ to stabilise the financially-troubled property and remove Jho from the group that owns it.

Witkoff headed the group of investors, which included Jho, that purchased the hotel in 2013 for $654 million. Jho reportedly provided the majority of the equity for the acquisition.

The DoJ alleged that Jho used dirty money to purchase his 55 per cent stake in Park Lane Hotel. His stake in the hotel is said to be his family's largest asset that the US is seeking to seize, forming part of some $1 billion in assets allegedly acquired with funds stolen from 1MDB.

The fund is currently the subject of money laundering investigations in at least six countries including the US, Switzerland, Singapore and, most recently, Australia.

However, a spanner was thrown into the works when a New Zealand court last month ruled that Jho's family can change trustees holding their assets, a decision that could see the financier sidestep US authorities' seizure attempts.

The Jho family's assets include a $107 million interest in EMI Music Publishing, a $35 million Bombardier jet, and a $30 million penthouse at Time Warner Center in New York.

Earlier this month, Singapore authorities placed the heat on the hidden 1MDB high flyer after they reportedly seized his Bombardier jet.