Luxury yacht served by 34 crew, five were missing during seizure

PETALING JAYA: There were 34 crew members of multiple nationalities serving onboard the luxury yacht linked to businessman Low Taek Jho, but five were missing when Indonesian authorities seized the boat, reported Indonesian news portal Detik News.

“There are 34 names on the list (registered crew members) but only 29 persons were found (onboard),” said Indonesian police criminal investigation bureau’s director of economic and special crimes Agung Setya to Detik News.

Agung said the five personnel were not found when police went through the crew list. There is a possibility the five were not on duty.

“The crew members are rostered to work in shifts, some may be off-duty,” he said.

Agung said the crew members came from various countries such as Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Thailand.

On Wednesday, a Reuters report said Indonesia had seized the luxury yacht, Equanimity, in Bali.

The yacht was sought by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) as part of a multibillion-dollar corruption investigation linked to Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), added the report.

The report also mentioned there were 34 crew members on board.

In Kuala Lumpur, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak said the DOJ has not shown any “tangible proof” that Jho Low (as Low is more popularly known) is the owner of the yacht seized.

“Until today, apart from bare allegations contained in the DoJ civil lawsuit, which has been put on hold since August last year, the DoJ has not shown any tangible proof that Jho Low is the actual owner of the yacht or that it was purchased with funds from 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

“Furthermore, the DoJ has yet to prove any of its allegations in a court of law, despite nearly two years passing since its sensationalised press conference of July 2016,” said Salleh on his blog yesterday.

He added the Opposition, however, had taken the opportunity to “mislead” Malaysians by using “unverified and unproven” allegations about the Equanimity.

He also said the Opposition failed to reveal the alleged source of funds in the DoJ lawsuit is from Aabar BVI, which according to the DoJ lawsuit, had alleged business dealings with Jho Low.

“The directors of Aabar BVI were Khadem Al Qubaisy and Mohammed Al Badawy, formerly senior employees in the IPIC group.

“1MDB has repeatedly clarified that whilst it did have business dealings with Aabar BVI, 1MDB has not had any business dealings with Jho Low and more importantly, 1MDB is not a party to the DoJ lawsuit,” said Salleh.