Sabah Water Dept moneylaundering trial adjourned

KOTA KINABALU: The trial of a former director of Sabah Water Department, his former deputy and two others, who were separately charged under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities (AMLATFAPUA) Act 2001, has been adjourned to July 30-31 and August 1-2.

Sessions Court judge Abu Bakar Manat put off the trial of Ag Mohd Tahir, 55, Teo Chee Kong, 52, together with Tahir's wife Fauziah Ag Piut, 52, and Lim Lam Beng @ Lim Chee Hong, 63, who were jointly tried on the third day of the trial yesterday, at the request of the prosecution.

The judge also set September 3 to 6, 18 to 20 and October 1 to 4, 22 to 25, November 12 to 15, 26 to 29 and December 10 to 13, for the trial.

Earlier, deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman informed the court that on May 18, the Court of Appeal (COA) had allowed the appeal made by the fourth accused, who was later known as Teo, for a stay of the trial pending the hearing on another three appeals made by Teo to the Superior Court.

Therefore he requested for the stay to be applied to all the accused in order to facilitate the trial process.

Counsel Roland Cheng, who represented Teo, confirmed the matter and pointed out that all of the appeals only concerned Teo and not the other three accused.

Thus, he opined that it was not necessary for the other three accused to have their trial stayed since there were no such applications made by the three.

Meanwhile, defence counsels Marcel Jude Joseph and Datuk Tan Hock Chuan raised no objection to the request made by the prosecution.

Marcel also contended that he found no basis regarding the contention raised by Roland as the trial is a joint trial for all of the accused.

He said it was not fair for the trial to continue against three accused only and such matter was not possible for a joint trial.

Abu Bakar said the joint trial order is still valid and thus allowed the trial for all the accused to be adjourned until the final decision by the COA on all the issues raised by the fourth accused (Teo) especially on the issue of joint trial and the recusal of him (Abu Bakar) as a trial judge for the case.

Mohd Tahir, Fauziah and Lim had pleaded not guilty to their money laundering charges involving cash and bank savings amounting to RM61.48 million, as well as unlawful possession of luxury goods.

Mohd Tahir faces 11 charges under Section 4 (1)(b) of the AMLATFAPUA Act 2001 while Fauziah and Lim were each charged with 19 and four charges respectively, under the same Act.

Apart from that, Mohd Tahir was also charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the same Act plus another two joint charges with his wife under Section 4 (1)(b) also of the same Act.

The alleged offences against Mohd Tahir and his wife were committed at the former Water Department director's office here, Graceville Townhouse in Sembulan, OCBC, UOB, Bank Islam, CIMB, Bank Rakyat here, Puncak Luyang Condo here, Kingfisher Sulaman and PNB Tower in Kuala Lumpur between October 4 and November 4, 2016.

Lim was alleged to have committed the offences at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office along Jalan UMS and a house along Jalan Penempatan here between October 13 and November 8, 2016.

Meanwhile, Teo was accused of possessing 70 pieces of land and cash allegedly obtained from illegal activities.

All his charges were framed under Sections 4(1)(a) and 4(1)(b) of the same Act.

The first 78 charges alleged that Teo possessed the land 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, where RM5,952,050.00 were in Malaysian Ringgit and RM1,978,760.48 in foreign currencies and also cash of RM12,287,240.07 in financial institutions.

The charges stated that Teo had committed the alleged offences at district offices and bank branches here, Penampang and Beaufort between 2005 and 2016.

Mohd Tahir and his wife are currently released on bail of RM5 million and RM1 million, with RM2 million and RM500,000 deposited respectively, while Teo was granted RM1.5 million bail with RM500,000 to be deposited with two local sureties, pending disposal of their cases.

DPP Amir Zaki together with DPPs Mohd Farez Rahman, Mahadi Abdul Jumaat and Rozana Abd Hadi appeared for the prosecution.

Counsels Marcel and Nurul Rafeeqa Afdul Mutolip represented Mohd Tahir and Fauziah while Tan, Baldev Singh, Karpaljit Singh and Zahir Shah represented Lim.

Teo was represented by counsels Roland Cheng, Ram Singh and Nelson W. Angang.