PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad challenged fugitive businessman Low Teak Jho, or Jho low, to come back to Malaysia first before he makes any claims.
“He can come here and make the allegations and I'll go to the court to defend my decision (on the handling and the sale price of Equanimity),” Dr Mahathir said when asked to comment on Jho Low’s latest statement following the superyacht Equanimity sale to Genting Malaysia Bhd announced by Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) today.
Dr Mahathir added that there is no point of making statements in hiding.
It was reported that Jho Low blamed Pakatan Harapan government of incompetency in handling the sale of the superyacht, especially over its “bargain-basement” sale price.
He claimed that the government had not kept to the rule of law in selling off the yacht and alleged the government had not gotten the best possible sale price for the yacht.
This was following an announcement that Genting would buy the superyacht for USD126 million (RM514.6 million), to be paid to the High Court by the end of April.
While describing it as the highest recovery to date from 1MDB, the AGC said USD126 million (RM514.6 million) is the best offer received over the five months since October 2018 when the Equanimity was first put up for sale.
“Many offers were received in this period, some were over USD100 million (RM408 million). It was Genting that offered the highest price and was approved today for court’s acceptance,” the statement read.
AGC described the USD126 million (RM514.6 million) offered by Genting for the yacht as 'a very satisfactory price’, although the government had initially planned to sell it for no lesser than USD130 million (RM530 million).
Last week, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the superyacht was being sold via a private treaty as an auction they had did not yield an agreeable bid.
Equanimity, which is now docked in Langkawi under the custody of High Court, has so far cost RM14.22 million for its maintenance and related fees since it arrived in our waters in August, last year.
It was earlier reported that the 91.4m-long vessel linked to scandal-plagued 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), has an estimated price of US$130 million (RM530 million) on Burgess, the website that’s handling its sale.
US court documents claimed Equanimity’s previous owner, wanted businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), bought the vessel for US$250 million (RM1.02 billion) allegedly using the money siphoned from 1MDB.