A lawyer for a Sulu group, which had been awarded US$15 billion in a disputed arbitration, has denied that his clients have any connection with the United Tausug Citizens (UTC), which recently claimed a similar amount from the government.
Paul Cohen, who is lead counsel for the group of eight people claiming to be the true heirs to the now-defunct Sulu sultanate, called the UTC a "crackpot invention" with a claim that is "simply nuts".
"This group described by (de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said) is unknown to my clients. Malaysia's intelligence and security services are quite capable of distinguishing apparently artificial 'groups' and unknown participants from my clients," he said in an email to the New Straits Times.
Azalina had recently described the claims by UTC as a baseless extortion scheme.
In a posting on the X application, she said Malaysia must address the unfounded claims over Sabah as they posed a potential threat to 16 per cent of the national budget.
"Such demands threaten the integrity of sovereign states and the principles of justice.
"The UTC's threat to sue Malaysia in the United States is alarming. We must address these spurious claims that risk 16 per cent of our national budget and exploit arbitration for profit, akin to extortion schemes," she wrote on X recently.
The group had requested the Malaysian government to immediately pay US$15 billion in "cession money" and recognise UTC as "a sovereign and independent state kingdom".
The group had also further threatened to start legal action against Malaysia in the US.
Cohen, however, also hit out at Azalina, claiming that she had aggressively attacked his clients by making it sound like the UTC claim was theirs.
He said many people had been led to confuse UTC's claims with his own clients', which he said was a legitimate claim and who had an existing arbitration award.
"The minister's statement is confusing. This (arbitration) award was set at US$14.9 billion in February 2022. Since then the award has increased by 10 per cent compound interest per annum.
"The government of Malaysia can run any expensive public distraction campaign it wants. It knows the facts," he said while also putting the blame on Malaysian media for equating his clients with the UTC.
The NST's checks of media reports in Malaysia, however, show that there were none which linked the UTC with Cohen's clients.
Azalina did say that the Sulu case and the risks of third-party litigation funding (TPLF) to state sovereignty was discussed during the 2024 Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting in Paris.
International media reports, however, may have caused some confusion when it called the UTC claims as having come from the "heirs".
