He said no “sensible” person would buy the Equanimity with so much uncertainty regarding its ownership.
Low said this in a statement issued by his lawyers through Wells Haslem Mayhew Strategic Public Affairs of Australia. He is wanted in Malaysia in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal but remains in hiding
Lawyer S Sitpah, who is representing the government, had said earlier this week that they were entering into the second phase of the bid to sell Equanimity.
“The first phase received bids, but the bids were not of acceptable degree. Therefore, we have to move on to the second phase,” she said.
The second phase, Sitpah said, would be a normal sale through private negotiations.
Low claimed today that the Equanimity was owned by Equanimity (Cayman) Ltd but that he had been “inevitably drawn into the media coverage over the yacht’s illegal seizure by the Malaysian government”
“The predictable failure of the (Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) government to hold a successful auction of the yacht Equanimity is another example of a Mahathir regime prioritising illegal acts over the rule of law in a transparent effort to score political points.
“This was a failed PR stunt from the outset. By illegally seizing the yacht from Indonesia, where the US government had been willing to cover the substantial cost of the vessel’s upkeep, docking it in a hazardous environment at Port Klang, and then subjecting the vessel to poorly-controlled media and public access, the Malaysian government was responsible for substantially eroding the Equanimity’s value.”
Low said Putrajaya had ignored court rulings in Indonesia and established legal proceedings in the US by seizing the Equanimity.
“With so much doubt hanging over its ownership, no sensible, independent third-party buyer is going to purchase a vessel from an unreliable vendor like the Mahathir regime at anything other than a hugely depressed value.
“Indeed, what now amounts to the doomed fire-sale of the Equanimity is an admission that this political PR stunt by the Mahathir regime has failed, and that these acts by the Malaysian government have been nothing more than political gamesmanship at the cost of the rule of law and the fair administration of justice,” he claimed.