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Kota Kinabalu: Former Sabah Water Department deputy director Teo Chee Kong became a free man on Thursday after the Special Corruption Court acquitted him of all his 146 money laundering charges, a departure from the court's previous discharge-only order.

Judge Abu Bakar Manat pronounced the Discharged-and-Acquitted (D&A) order, replacing the previous Discharge-Not-Amounting-to an-Acquittal (DNAA) order.

"Based on the new development of the case and the confirmation given by the prosecution that they will no longer wish to prosecute and there are no more pending investigations against the accused, and also since there is no objection from the prosecution that the DNAA status given by the court on Feb 18 be warranted as D&A, the court therefore pronounced that the DNAA order on Feb 18 given earlier be warranted as Discharged and Acquitted," said the judge.

"As such the accused, Teo Chee Kong, is now ordered by this court to be discharged and acquitted of all 146 charges." 

Teo, on Feb 18, was given a DNAA from all 146 counts of money laundering from illegal activities amounting to RM32.9 million, but the MACC later slapped him with a RM30 million compound.