BIDDING ON ‘EQUANIMITY’ BEGINS, TO END ON NOV 28

It will end on Nov 28, says lawyer

MALAYSIA yesterday started an auction of financier Low Taek Jho’s US$250 million (RM1.04 billion) luxury yacht, which investigators allege was bought with funds embezzled from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Bidding on Equanimity will end on Nov 28, according to Ong Chee Kwan from law firm Christopher and Lee Ong, who is representing the government and 1MDB in the sale of the 90m vessel.

He could not provide an estimate on the amount Malaysia expected to raise from it.

“All I can say is, as high as possible,” Ong said, referring those interested to yacht brokerage firm Burgess, which is handling the process.

The yacht is among more than US$1.7 billion in assets that the United States claims were acquired by Low, better known as Jho Low, and his accomplices with money they allegedly siphoned off from 1MDB.

A US district judge in May ordered Low’s companies to hand over the vessel to the US so it could be sailed from Indonesia, where it was seized in February, and sold. Instead, it ended up in Malaysia, arriving in Port Klang on Aug 7.

It was unclear how Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad secured the Indonesian authorities’ agreement to relinquish possession of Equanimity.

Low had said Malaysia’s move to acquire the vessel was “illegitimate”, while Dr Mahathir had challenged the yacht’s owners to show the source of funds to buy Equanimity.

A spokesman for Low did not reply yesterday to an email seeking comment on the auction.

A Malaysian court approved in August an application by the government and 1MDB to dispose of the boat that they said was costing “substantial and escalating expenses” to maintain.

Equanimity Cayman Ltd, the company that owns the yacht, had said the court decision to move for a sale in Malaysia immediately would be a violation of due process and international legal comity, and would call into question the actual ownership of the yacht for any buyer.

Ong said the exchange of the vessel’s ownership would take place a few days after bidding ends.

PIC FILE The ‘Equanimity’ is among assets that the United States claims were acquired by financier Low Taek Jho and his accomplices with money allegedly siphoned off from 1Malaysia Development Bhd.