THE government will sell the Equanimity in three to four months if its ownership is not contested in the Admiralty High Court, said Attorney-General Tommy Thomas. 

“If no one contests, it (the court process) is very fast,” Thomas told reporters after speaking at a private session in the International Malaysia Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur, today. 

Thomas said the RM1 billion vessel could be sold “in a transparent manner” to “transform the asset from ship into money.”

Thomas said Low Taek Jho was welcome to claim ownership of the yacht in the admiralty court here, whereby the “accumulated interest and the account” would go to the winner of the civil suit. 

“In many ways we would like him to appoint a shipping lawyer,” he said.

He said proceeds from the sale of the yacht, which was seized under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (Amla), will be placed in a fixed deposit trust account.

Thomas said he did not expect a trust account to be set up until “much later.”

Under Amla, the public prosecutor can forfeit the assets of those who have committed money laundering offences.

Thomas said prosecutors seized the yacht under admiralty law in due to its universality. 

He also defended the government’s move to sell the ship as soon as possible. “No sovereign country wants a yacht of such luxury.” 

Putrajaya in June issued an arrest warrant for Penang businessman Low, commonly known as Jho Low, who is accused of siphoning billions from the 1Malaysian Development Bhd state wealth fund.

The yacht arrived at Port Klang last Tuesday, courtesy of Indonesian authorities which had impounded the Equanimity in Bali in February at the request of US Department of Justice, which is also carrying out its fraud and corruption investigations into 1MDB. – August 14, 2018.