THE captain of luxury yacht Equanimity is a suspect after he turned off the yacht’s automated identification system to allegedly avoid detection of a wanted asset, the Wall Street Journal reports.

This is in relation to the US Department of Justice (DoJ) probe into billions siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)

The paper said US and Indonesian authorities have named the South African captain, Rolf Sieboldt-Berry, as a suspect for trying to hide property wanted in an assets seizure and for allegedly trying to avoid detection.

Indonesia seized the Equanimity off the waters of Bali on Wednesday and FBI and Indonesian officials were seen boarding it for investigations into the fraud case brought by the DoJ over US$4.5 billion (RM18 billion) allegedly siphoned from 1MDB.

The US$250 million yacht is said to have been bought with these funds by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, who is also a close associate of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s and who is said to have made key decisions at 1MDB in its early days.

Sieboldt-Berry is said to have turned off the yacht’s identification system around Singapore and Philippines, but WSJ said the captain’s lawyer Rando Purba, told police he had done so only once to avoid pirates.

DoJ has been seeking the yacht as well as other luxury assets in a civil forfeiture suit of almost US$2 billion in assets allegedly bought with money from 1MDB.

The whereabouts of Low, who is a central figure in the allegations, are still unknown but a spokesman described DoJ had “over-reached based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing”.

Malaysia’s Attorney-General said the government will not move to claim the yacht as the government did not own it, while a federal minister said DoJ had never proven Low owned the yacht. – March 2, 2018.