The self-proclaimed heirs of the last Sulu sultan may target other government-linked companies, warned Malaysia’s law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said.
The claimants have already attempted to seize assets from Petronas, and Azalina says they have a strategy to target other commercial assets, such as Boustead Shipping and Malaysia Airlines.
During a briefing for MPs in Parliament, Azalina spoke about the dispute and called for vigilance. She described the attempted seizure of assets as “commercial piracy,” with the claimants using commercial means to “commit piracy against Malaysia.”
In February 2022, a French arbitration court ordered Malaysia to pay US$14.92 billion (RM62.59 billion) to the descendants of the last sultan of Sulu, ruling that Malaysia had violated the 1878 agreements between the old Sulu kingdom in the Philippines and a representative of the British North Borneo Company that used to administer what is now Sabah.
The Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus units were first seized in July 2022, but the government said last month the order had been set aside by a Luxembourg district court.
Azalina revealed that one of the eight claimants is a cousin of one of the eight Filipino men who were sentenced to death for waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in relation to the Lahad Datu intrusion.
The self-proclaimed heirs of the last Sulu sultan have also been backed by Therium, one of the world’s largest litigation funding firms, which reportedly bankrolled the Sulu claimants’ dispute to the tune of US$10 million. Azalina noted that the timing of the attempted seizure of assets was related to political unrest in Malaysia.
She said that as opposed to blaming the self-proclaimed heirs of the last sultan of Sulu, the “biggest culprit” is Therium, the team backing the claimants.
Therium is one of the world’s largest litigation funding firms and reportedly bankrolled the Sulu claimants’ dispute to the tune of US$10 million.
“They (claimants) won’t have the money (otherwise), meaning, someone was behind them,” Azalina said.
“The timing was because the government had changed. When they saw the country was shaken because of political unrest, they took action. They’re not stupid.”