Equanimity received 'warning' to evade pirates, claims captain's lawyer

The captain of the superyacht Equanimity, which is linked to businessperson Jho Low, turned off the vessel's Automated Identification System (AIS) in an attempt to "evade pirates" while out on the Andaman Sea.

Lawyer Rando Purba told Malaysiakini that his client, Rolf Sieboldt-Berry, who is a South African national, revealed the matter to the Indonesian police while being questioned on Monday.

"My understanding is that my client only turned off the system one time - when the yacht left Colombo for Phuket.

"They (the captain and crew) were out on the Andaman Sea and they received something like a warning from authorities, to all yachts in the area… not just them, that there were bombings by pirates," Purba said when contacted.

Equanimity was spotted in Colombo last year and was later seen in Phuket.  

Purba also confirmed reports that Sieboldt-Berry was quizzed on allegations that he had deliberately switched off the AIS to avoid detection by investigating authorities from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Indonesian police spokesperson M Iqbal said yesterday that Rolf had turned off the AIS "several times" making the vessel undetectable when it was in Philippine waters and heading towards the southeast of Singapore.

"At the time, US authorities had issued a seizure warrant," Iqbal was quoted as saying.

The Equanimity was reportedly first spotted entering Indonesian waters last November, passing through the resort island of Raja Ampat in East Nusa Tenggara, before sailing westwards towards Lombok and Bali, where it was seized on Monday.

Money from 1MDB

The vessel is being sought by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on grounds that it was bought using money laundered from Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB.

The DOJ, in its asset forfeiture suit, claimed that Jho Low commissioned the superyacht to be built at an estimated cost of US$250 million (RM1 billion) using money allegedly siphoned from 1MDB.

The 91.5m-long vessel has a spa, a beauty salon, a gym, a sauna, a Turkish bath and a large swimming pool, as well as a helicopter pad.

Low's current whereabouts are unknown. However, his spokesperson had described the seizure of the Equanimity as an "overreach" by the US authorities.

Despite this, Malaysian cabinet minister Salleh Said Keruak claimed that there was no proof that Low owned the vessel.

Meanwhile, attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali told Malaysiakini that the government would not seek the returnof the superyacht. -Mkini