KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah State Water Department deputy director Teo Chee Kong faces 146 charges in the Corruption Court here for allegedly possessing 70 pieces of land and cash, all valued at about RM32 million, obtained from illegal activities.
Teo, 52, who was brought before judge Nixon Kennedy Kumbong, pleaded not guilty to all the charges framed under Sections 4 (1) (a) and 4 (1) (b) yesterday.
Each of the sections were framed under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 and Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, respectively.
The first 78 charges alleged that the accused was in possession of the lands obtained from illegal activities through 78 transactions of transferring ownership worth RM12,705,203.70.
The other 68 counts accused Teo of possessing cash amounting to RM7,930,810.48 (RM5,952,050 of Malaysian Ringgit and RM1,978,760.48 foreign currency) and also cash of RM12,287,240.07 at financial institutions.
Teo had committed the alleged offences at separate locations at district land offices and bank branches here, Penampang and Beaufort between 2005 and 2016.
The court released the accused on RM1.5 million bail with RM500,000 deposited with two local sureties.
It also ordered for the accused’s passport to be impounded and kept by the court, pending disposal of the cases and to report every Saturday to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office between 8am and 8pm.
The accused’s cases will be mentioned again on January 16 next year for pre-trial case management.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki told the court that the prosecution objected to bail on the grounds that the case involved public interest as this was the biggest seizure ever in Malaysia.
Tengku Amir submitted that if the counsel were to refer the former State Water Department director’s cases which involved only 13 charges, then the bail amount if granted should be doubled.
The prosecution also said that if the court granted bail, they suggested for the amount of RM10 million and the accused’s passport is to be kept by court.
Counsel Hamid Ismail, who was one of the lawyers representing the accused, rebutted that the grounds given by the prosecution had no merit.
Hamid also submitted that the accused had cooperated well with the MACC since his arrest on October 4, 2016.
He also argued that RM10 million, as suggested by the prosecution, was very excessive and in the former State Water Department director’s cases, he was released on RM5 million bail with RM2 million deposited but the subject matters allegedly involved RM59 million.
Hamid further submitted that the surrender of the accused’s passport to the court should be to reduce in the quantum of bail.
Meanwhile, counsel Roland Cheng, who also defended the accused suggested for the bail amount of RM1 million with RM500,000 deposited and the counsel also told the court that most of the accused’s assets had been frozen by the MACC.