Court grants 1MDB, government application to sell Equanimity
KUALA LUMPUR: The Admiralty Court yesterday granted an application by the government as well as 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and two of its subsidiaries to sell the luxury superyacht ‘Equanimity’.
Judicial commissioner Datuk Khadijah Idris allowed the application after proceedings in chambers with the relevant parties.
“The court has granted us an order to sell the vessel. Our next step is to get the vessel sold as it is a diminishing asset and the cost of maintenance is very high,” Ong Chee Kwan, counsel for 1MDB and the subsidiaries, namely 1MDB Energy Holdings Limited and 1MDB Global Investment Limited, told reporters after the proceedings.
“The longer you keep it (vessel), its value will diminish at the end of the day. So we want it to be sold as soon as possible,” he said, adding that it was expected that the sale would happen before year-end.
Senior Federal Counsel Alice Loke and Zureen Elena Md Dom represented the government.
In the notice of application, the four plaintiffs asked for the sale of the ship, bunkers, fuel, lubricants and other consumables on board to be conducted via public tender or private treaty by the Admiralty Court sheriff.
The firms wanted the sheriff to receive bids or offers for the vessel and the bunkers and for the purchase price to be paid to the sheriff in US dollars or euros or ringgit.
They said the proceeds of the sale of the vessel should be paid into court and placed in a bank account in Malaysia as approved by the Accountant-General.
In the court order filed on Thursday, they named the owner of the ship, Equanimity of Cayman Islands, as the defendant in the suit filed via the law firm of Jeremy Joseph & Partners.
The superyacht was brought to Port Klang on Aug 7 after the Indonesian authorities handed it to Malaysia.
It was seized off Bali in February at the request of the US authorities as part of the corruption investigation launched by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) into 1MDB. Bernama