Former senator Keo Maly reached out to the Appeal Court on Thursday to order the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to remove her properties that it had put up for auction.

On August 1, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court opened bidding for the 26 properties belonging to Maly and Keo Suy Chheng, which the court stated were registered under the company “Land Property Ltd”. The starting bid was set at $7,242,854.20.

Twenty of the properties are in the Vimean Keo Choronai condominium in Chbar Ampov district’s Niroth commune in Phnom Penh.

The auction comes after a ruling by the municipal court in a case in May last year to put the properties up for auction on July 31, with bidding open between August 1 and 29.

On Thursday, Maly issued a letter saying the Keo Maly Group had appealed against the court’s decision to auction the properties.

In 2013, Maly loaned $7 million from the Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia Plc (BIDC Bank), the letter said, of which her company had paid back $5.8 million, with $2.7 million outstanding (including interest).

The properties were worth more than $20 million, not the mere $7.2 million set as the starting bid, it said.

BIDC Bank had secretly arranged to put her properties up for auction, the letter alleged, adding that a lot of inaccurate information has been spreading regarding Maly and her company with the intent to tarnish their reputations and have their 26 licensed properties taken away.

Maly told The Post she had only recently found out about the auction from the media.

“My land, which is worth more than $30 million, was put up for auction at a starting bid of $7 million when I currently owe just over $2 million,” she said.

The $30 million she quoted to The Post is $10 million higher than what she had told the court in her letter, which claimed to be the true value of the property.

BIDC Bank declined to comment, telling The Post that information regarding the bank’s clients was confidential.