THE United States Department of Justice wants to suspend proceedings in US courts related to the superyacht Equanimity as it seeks details of the handover from Indonesia to Malaysia. 

But the owners have asked for quick action against what it called an illegal act by Malaysian authorities in seizing the vessel. 

“The (US) government has learned that the defendant yacht has been released by the Indonesian government to the government of Malaysia and has left Indonesian waters. It is the government’s understanding that a warrant was obtained in Indonesia authorising the turnover.

“The government proposes that all proceedings in this action be suspended in order to give the government and any interested claimant the opportunity to inquire of Malaysia through formal channels what its intentions are with respect to the defendant yacht,” the DoJ said in a notice filed at the California Central District Court early today (about 12.45pm yesterday, California time).

The department asked that it be allowed to report back to the court on its findings by August 17.

The owners of the yacht said in a filing that the  legality of the yacht seizure by Indonesian and  Malaysian authorities is the subject of the petition of pretrial filed on August 6, “which challenges, inter alia, the lawfulness of the warrant and subsequent seizure, the failure by the Indonesian and Malaysian authorities to follow the legally prescribed method for seizure of assets under Malaysia’s law on mutual legal assistance, and the INP’s authority under law to surrender the yacht to the Malaysian authorities”. 

The INP is the Indonesian national police. 

The DoJ filed its civil forfeiture suit to seize the US$250 million (RM1.03 billion) vessel on July 15 last year, claiming that it was bought using the proceeds of misappropriation from 1MDB that had been channelled through the US financial system.

It has gained a protective custody order from the California court to bring the vessel back to US waters to facilitate an interlocutory sale of the vessel pending a hearing. 

That move mean the vessel could be sold with consent from the other parties in the suit, while both sides continue to argue over who gets to keep the proceeds of the sale and even if the claimants dispute where and how the sale should be conducted and how the vessel should be handled in the meantime.

An appeal against the protective custody order is still pending in the US Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit.

But the Indonesian government handed the yacht over to the Malaysian government yesterday, and it is expected to reach Port Klang under police escort this afternoon.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said yesterday Putrajaya is looking into the possibility of opening at least part of the vessel for public viewing, after all its contents had been inventoried, and then to auction Equanimity to the highest bidder.

Despite these developments and the fact that Malaysia and Indonesia are not parties to the suit in California, the DoJ said in its latest notice that the handover to Malaysian authorities has effected the California court’s jurisdiction over the vessel.

In response to the handover, the lawyer for the owner of the yacht, Equanimity Cayman Limited, James Haggerty, said the handover shows Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed is not interested in due process.

“The Mahathir regime’s illegal act today, ignoring court rulings in legal proceedings in the US and Indonesia, prove he has no interest in a fair and just process.

“Equanimity Cayman Limited had already filed a claim on this asset, which Mahathir ignores. Further proceedings have been issued today in response to this illegal act.

“Mahathir has chosen to bring the asset illegally into a rigged Malaysian system manipulated by a man who only cares about his absolute political rule. It is ultimately justice that suffers,” Haggerty said in a statement yesterday.

Equanimity Ltd is alleged by the DoJ to be an intermediary firm for Low Taek Jho, a central figure in the 1MDB scandal. – August 7, 2018.