Jho Low’s luxury yacht to be sold at 9-digit price
Sale of luxury vessel Equanimity to close on March 31
KUALA LUMPUR: The superyacht Equanimity will be sold for a nine-digit price tag before March 31, said 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) lawyer Sitpah Selvaratnam.
She said the sheriff of the Admiralty Court would be seeking the necessary orders from court to commence the second phase of the judicial sale by private treaty for the closing of the sale no later than March 31.
"The nine-digit asking price will be available on application, once approval of court is obtained, and will be commensurate with a 4½-year-old Oceanco-built luxury yacht, with the specifications of the Equanimity as she lies," she said in a statement.
Ms Sitpah said the sheriff has now considered the aspects of the offers received at the closing of submission of bids. And the sheriff believes that going ahead with the second stage of the judicial sale process will help secure the optimum value for the Equanimity.
Ms Sitpah and her team of lawyers and Senior Federal Counsel Alice Loke, who acted for the government, were present before High Court (Admiralty Court) Judicial Commissioner Khadijah Idris during the proceedings in chambers yesterday, reported The Star.
The bidding process for the superyacht began on Oct 29 and ended on Nov 28.
On Oct 19, the High Court declared the government and 1MDB were the beneficiary owners and that the government was free to sell the superyacht.
The judgment came after its registered owner failed to appear in court to claim the vessel.
Besides 1MDB and the government, the other two plaintiffs are 1MDB Energy Holdings and 1MDB Global Investment, both 1MDB subsidiaries.
On Oct 5, the court granted an application by the plaintiffs to appoint a central broker and an international appraiser to handle the sale of the Equanimity, which purportedly belongs to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.
In the Aug 23 application, the four plaintiffs named the owner of the ship, Equanimity of Cayman Islands, as the defendant in a suit filed via the law firm of Jeremy Joseph and Partners.
The 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 superyacht was brought to Port Klang on Aug 7 after the Indonesian authorities handed it over to Malaysia.
It had been seized off Bali in February at the request of the US authorities as part of the corruption probe into 1MDB launched by the US Department of Justice.
Malaysian police will request the extradition of Low and four others if they are discovered in other countries, national police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said yesterday.
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