This means the new owners are free to sell it after the decision was made by Judicial Commissioner Datuk Khajidah Idris.
“The court today has declared that the two 1MDB companies which are 1MDB Energy Holdings Limited dan 1MDB Global Investment Limited to be the legal and beneficial owner of the vessel. Therefore, indirectly the government of Malaysia be the ultimate beneficiary of this two companies.
“Now the vessel can be sold without any legal restriction. The defendant, even though, (it) has knowledge on this, but did not appear until today. It’s not surprising because the claim and evidence is overwhelming and they would have difficult to deny that 1MDB and the government own the vessel,” said lawyer Sitpah Selvaratnam, who is leading the legal team for the government, 1MDB and the subsidiaries which had applied for a judgment in default
On October 5, the same court granted an application by the four plaintiffs to appoint a central broker and an international appraiser to handle the sale of the yacht.
This followed a decision on August 24 by the court in granting an application by the plaintiffs to sell the yacht. The plaintiffs named the owner of the ship, Equanimity of Cayman Islands, as the defendant.
The super yacht was brought to Port Klang on August 7 from Bali via Batam after Indonesia agreed to hand it over to Malaysia.