1MDB scandal: US government says Malaysian financier Jho Low trying to stop seizure of US$250m luxury yacht
The US Department of Justice is seeking to move the yacht to the United States where it can be taken into government custody and sold
Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, accused of links to a plot to siphon billions of dollars from a Malaysian state fund, is trying to stop the United States government from seizing a US$250 million yacht in Indonesia, court filings showed.
The DOJ is seeking to move the yacht to the United States where it can be taken into US government custody and sold, according to a filing at a California court.
The department said Low bought the yacht with funds “stolen and embezzled from 1MDB” and said he is fighting the US seizure through four companies, named as claimants in the case.
The claimants kept the yacht “in a series of foreign locations and frustrated the government’s efforts to bring this asset to the United States”, the DOJ filing said.
“There was significant evidence that Low instructed claimants to keep the Equanimity outside the government’s hands and outside the United States,” it said.
