Teo (charges dropped) to pay RM30m
Published on: Saturday, February 19, 2022
By: Jo Ann Mool
.jpg "Teo (charges dropped) to pay RM30m")
Teo leaving the courthouse accompanied by his counsel.
Kota Kinabalu: The Special Corruption Court granted former Sabah Water Department deputy director Teo Chee Kong a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) on all 146 counts of money laundering from illegal activities amounting to RM32.9 million and later slapped him with an RM30 million compound.Judge Abu Bakar Manat made the decision after Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mahadi Abdul Jumaat informed the court that the prosecution had decided to discontinue all the 146 charges against Teo, 57.
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Teo was one of four key suspects involved in the “Sabah watergate scandal”, one of the biggest corruption cases in the country.
“Teo has already submitted a representation to the Attorney General and we have already received the representation submitted by him and today we are informing the court that we will not pursue all the 146 charges against Teo.
“We apply for the accused to be discharged not amounting to an acquittal as of today (Friday),” said Mahadi.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Legal and Prosecution Division senior director Datuk Faridz Gohim Abdullah told media after the proceedings that the MACC and also the Federal Attorney-General decided to impose a compound action against Teo of RM30 million based on the provisions of Section 92 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA).
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Faridz stressed that based on the consideration of several representation letters sent by Teo’s lawyers, the MACC and also the Federal Attorney-General decided to impose compound action against Teo.
“The amount of the compound is a large amount of RM30 million and also this compounding action was made based on the provisions of Section 92 of AMLA which allows MACC to receive from the person reasonably suspected of having committed an offence under AMLA 2001.
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“The compound will have to be paid within 14 days from Friday. If Teo failed to pay the compound he would face the force of the law,” said Faridz.
“This compound is also a form of punitive action and a form of asset recovery action under AMLA and the payment of this compound is a great success in the asset recovery action by the prosecution,” Faridz said. However, the compounding action on Teo does not stop or affect the charges against the other accused who are still on trial.
“The prosecution is still continuing with the charges against three more people in this case and the action decided is one of the strategies of the prosecution in further strengthening the evidence in this case later,” he said.
“Compounding of an accused is not something new or a foreign thing in this country. There have been previous cases where similar action has been taken,” added Faridz.
Earlier in the proceedings, Teo’s counsel Ram Singh applied for the bail of RM500,000 to be refunded and other conditions of the bail against him withdrawn.
Mahadi said as of Friday, there are no recent instructions on the status of the other three accused and applied for the trial date set before being maintained.
The court ordered Teo to be DNAA from all the 146 charges and ordered the bail sum of RM500,000 to be refunded to the bailor and all other conditions of bail to be withdrawn and that Teo’s passport be surrendered back to him.
Teo said he was relieved and pleased with the prosecution’s decision to drop all charges against him.
“I thank God and Ram Singh team plus previous counsel,” said Teo, whose case was for mention on Friday together with the cases of Sabah Water Department’s former director Awang Mohd Tahir Awang Mohd Talib, his wife Fauziah Piut and former deputy director of the department Lim Lam Beng.
Awang Mohd Tahir’s and Fauziah’s counsel Marcel Jude told the court that as of Friday they have nothing to update for trial and that he would consult his clients before the trial date.
Meanwhile, counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, representing Lim informed the court via video conferencing app Zoom that they have written a letter of representation on July 17, 2019 as well as a follow-up letter last week on Feb 11 and were waiting for a decision response from the prosecution.
DPP Mahadi confirmed they have already received the said representation letter and that the representation is still under consideration.
Abu Bakar reconfirmed the fixed trial dates for Awang Mohd Tahir, Fauziah and Lim set on April 11-14, April 25 - 27, May 17-19 and June 13 -16.
Teo was first brought to court on Dec. 13, 2017 where he pleaded not guilty to all the charges in which 78 charges stated that Teo allegedly had 70 land titles from illegal activities through 78 transactions valued at RM12,705,203.70 after transfer of ownership.
He allegedly committed the offence between Oct. 21, 2005 and Aug. 19, 2014 at separate locations in the Land Office in Beaufort, Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Sipitang, Papar and Land and Survey Department here.
The charges under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 provides for a fine of up to RM5 million or a jail term of up to five years or both, upon conviction.
The remaining 68 charges against Teo stated that he allegedly committed six offences of having cash totalling RM7,930,810.48 (RM5,952,050 and RM1,978,760.48 in estimated foreign currencies) from illegal activities and 62 offences of having money in bank accounts totalling RM12,287,240.07 from illegal activities in eight financial institutions here and in Kuala Lumpur.
The offence allegedly took place between Oct 4, 2016 and Dec 30, 2016.
Each charge framed under Section 4 (1) (b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 carries a jail term of up to 15 years and liability of a fine of not less than five times the sum or value of the proceeds of unlawful activity or instrumentalities of an offence at the time the offence was committed or five million ringgit, whichever is the higher, on conviction.
On May 21, 2018, the court postponed the trial of their cases following Teo’s application for a stay of the trial that had been granted by the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on May 18, the same year until the disposal of appeals filed by him.
Ram in the previous mention of updating the court on Teo’s appeal on Dec 21, 2020 said that the Appeal Court has heard and disposed of all their six appeals and that only one issue pending was the application for stay of the trial pending disposal of a few appeals and leave applications at the Federal Court.
According to Ram, they had on Jan 28 this year filed a discontinuance notice of the appeal and other leave applications to the Federal Court, which supposedly to hear the appeal and leave applications on Feb 16 but has since vacated due to the filing of the said notices.
The prosecution had so far called five witnesses in the trial. On Dec 29, 2016 Awang Mohd Tahir, 58, and Fauziah, 55, along with Lim, 66, pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of money laundering, involving RM61.57million.
They were jointly tried with Teo.
Both Awang Mohd Tahir and Fauziah were absent while Lim presents through Zoom. Together with Ram were counsel Timothy Daut, Kimberly Ye and Chen Wen Jye.
Together with Tan were counsel Baldev Singh and Karpaljit Singh, who were also present via Zoom, and Zahir Shah.
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