If my memory is correct one of the articles makes reference to a US investment bank being short - initially I assumed maybe that they had confused forced selling with shorting, but would be interesting to know if a certain US investment bank* was short before making a decision to force sell the stock..................
If the Malaysians were selling stock from their box and financing the other side at IB's margin rate they must have assumed that they were untouchable as far as legal recourse - this situation exists in some SE Asian countries and maybe also Malaysia and even Singapore, but it seems if the assets have actually been frozen by IB's court order if this was the Malaysians assumption it was wrong.
*Popular belief has it that a certain US investment bank blew up a lot of clients by trading against their positions in the 2007/8 crisis because they worked out that the trading desk would make more doing this than the prime brokerage would make in fees over the next 5 years (a lifetime/unknowable horizon in investment banking employment.). I am referring to the bank that, according to its CEO, just wants to bring joy to children and bunny rabbits around the world.