The Kuala Lumpur High Court has granted the request of 1MDB and the government for the superyacht Equanimity to be sold, while the court decides who will keep the proceeds.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Ong Chee Kwan, told this to reporters after meeting Judicial Commissioner Khadijah Idris on the matter in chambers.

“The court has granted our application for sale pendente lite, which means you get the order to sell the vessel pending the (court's) determination of the asset.

“So the order has been granted, our next step, of course, is to pursue (proceedings) as fast as possible to get the vessel sold,” he told reporters outside the courtroom.

No representatives for the Equanimity's owners or 1MDB-linked businessperson Jho Low were present at court.

Ong said a notice for the urgent sale was served to the yacht’s registered owner Equanimity (Cayman) Ltd on Wednesday. 

He added that, to date, no one has filed an appearance to the case, and the 14-day deadline for Equanimity Ltd to do so has already expired.

When contacted later, Ong clarified that while Equanimity Ltd could no longer file an appearance in the case, other interested parties, such as Low himself, could still intervene in the case.



Meanwhile, lawyer Jeremy M Joseph, who is also representing 1MDB and the government, told reporters that the next step is to get a valuer to appraise the vessel, and a broker to sell it for the best price.

In the meantime, Ong said the plaintiffs will be applying for a judgment-in-default since there is no one else claiming the vessel in the Kuala Lumpur court.

He said he hopes the judgment would be granted by the end of the year. Once it is granted, the plaintiffs would be entitled to the proceeds of the sale of the vessel.

The urgent sale is necessary because the yacht is a diminishing asset, he said, and its maintenance fees would also eat into the proceeds ultimately obtained from the sale.

Free of encumbrances

Meanwhile, Joseph denied that future buyers of the yacht would face legal problems because of ongoing proceedings in the US and other jurisdictions.

He said one of the features of a judicial sale under admiralty law is that assets are sold free of any liens and encumbrances.

“That is why we have adopted the admiralty process and arrested the vessel, and pursuant to the arrest, we are selling the vessel. Whichever buyer buys it, buys it free and clean (of encumbrances),” he said.

This morning, Equanimity Ltd claimed that since the ownership of the yacht is still contested in US courts, the ownership status of potential buyers of the Equanimity would be called into question.

"These misguided actions would create a cloud on the Equanimity’s ownership that could easily take years to resolve in several courts around the world," the Caribbean-based firm said in a statement, adding that it had not received any legally valid notice regarding the court hearing today.


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