KUALA LUMPUR (March 8): Indonesian police are set to  hand over a luxury yacht seized on the resort island of Bali to U.S. authorities, and give the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) an asset allegedly linked to the US$4.5 billion fraud case centered on the state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said.

In a report yesterday, WSJ quoted Daniel Silitonga, Indonesia’s chief police investigator in the seizure of the yacht Equanimity as saying that police would transer control over the US$250 million vessel “in a few days” upon completion of legal arrangements.

It was widely reported on Feb 28 that that Indonesia had seized the luxury yacht off the island of Bali.

The yacht was sought by the DOJ as part of a multi-billion dollar corruption investigation linked to 1MDB.

"We have been inspecting the crew since yesterday (Feb 27) and now we are taking action, since we have received approval from the court," Agung Setya, director of economic and special crimes at Indonesia's criminal investigation bureau, had told Metro TV.

In August 2017, the DOJ asked for a stay on its civil lawsuits seeking to seize more than US$1.7 billion in assets allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB funds because it was conducting a related criminal probe.

Among the assets sought were a US$250 million luxury yacht bought by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, named as a key figure in the US lawsuits. Low is popularly known as Jho Low.

The lawsuits alleged that Low used proceeds diverted from 1MDB to procure Equanimity, which it described as a 300-foot (91-m) yacht registered in the Cayman Islands.