According to the Indonesian media, the rumour began through a Facebook post on an account named “Miyoyo”, allegedly owned by a Malaysian.

“Indonesian investigators found 1 billion ringgit kept neatly in Jo Lo’s vessel?” the post read.

Daniel Silitonga, the deputy director of economic and special crimes in the Indonesian central police department, said such news circulating in Malaysia was false.

“I led the team that seized the vessel. We did not find any money,” he was quoted as saying by the Indonesian media here.

The seizure of the yacht was part of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation started in 2016 into Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

In August 2017, the DoJ asked for a stay on its civil lawsuits seeking to seize more than US$1.7 billion in assets allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB funds because it was conducting a related criminal probe.

Among the assets sought was the US$250 million yacht bought by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who is named as a key figure in the US lawsuits.

The lawsuits said Low, who is better known as Jho Low, used proceeds diverted from 1MDB to procure the Equanimity, which it described as a 300-foot (91-metre) yacht registered in the Cayman Islands.