Six months after assuming office, he cleared then prime minister Najib Razak of any wrongdoing in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and SRC International cases and marked the investigation for "no further action".
In 1990, he contested the Pengkalan Chapa, Kelantan constituency as a candidate for the United Malay National Organization but lost with 26.5 percent of the votes.
[5] On 27 July 2015, then Prime Minister Najib Razak summarily dismissed the Attorney General of Malaysia, Abdul Gani Patail, and appointed Apandi to replace him.
[7] At a press conference on 26 January 2016, Apandi cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak of wrongdoing in relation to the transfer of funds from Malaysian government company SRC to his personal bank accounts.
Apandi declared that he was satisfied that the funds originated from a personal donation by the royal family of Saudi Arabia, had been returned, and marked the investigation for no further action.
The High Court noted that the two flow charts which Apandi held up during the 26 January 2016 press conference clearly showed that the funds which entered Najib's accounts were actually from Malaysian government company SRC and not from Arab donations or any other source.
[15] On 27 July 2022, Klang MP Charles Santiago lodged a police report against Apandi for abuse of power in covering up investigations into the SRC International and 1MDB matters.
Apandi claimed that the article had libelled him by saying that he was involved in crime and had abetted in the 1MDB scandal, was a person with no morals and integrity, was unethical and had abused his power when he was the Attorney General.
[24][25][26][27] In grounds of decision totalling 100 pages, Judge Azimah Omar remarked that Apandi seemed disinterested and at times self contradictory when testifying in the suit against Lim Kit Siang.