In new video after Tei's dramatic arrest, woman says PM ordered Shamsul to sign support letters

A new instalment of a video recording at the centre of recent allegations of corruption in the country's highest office has surfaced, this time with another startling claim that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was the one who instructed his senior aide to issue a support letter last year recommending six contractors for a government hospital project.

The two-minute clip is believed to be part of the same conversation between businessman Albert Tei and a woman he identified as a proxy for Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, who recently resigned as Anwar's political secretary citing the controversy over the support letter.

In the clip, the woman, Sofia Rini Buyong, also appears to absolve Shamsul of blame, saying he had been instructed to sign many such letters on behalf of the prime minister since Anwar came to power in 2022.

Sofia: In the first and second year after Anwar came to power, many people requested support letters from him. He did not want to sign, so he asked Shamsul to sign. Meaning that in 2023 and 2024, Shamsul signed them all on his boss's instruction.

Tei: Anwar instructed him to sign?

Sofia: Yes.

Tei: Who told you? Shamsul?

Sofia: Of course.

Tei: Shamsul himself told you?

Sofia: Yes. He told me himself. He said, during the first and second year, every time someone asked for a (support) letter, Anwar would call him: 'Shamsul, prepare a proper letter for such and such project...'

Tei: Anwar told him?

Sofia: Yes, told him. And then he asked him to sign.

Sofia, however, said there was nothing wrong with issuing the letter, describing it as "standard procedure".

Tei then pressed further, suggesting that Shamsul must have profited from signing the letter.

"Never. I did ask him, he said it was on his boss's instruction. The boss told him to. He did not get anything," replied Sofia in the video dated Nov 21.

It is the first clip released since Tei's dramatic arrest on Nov 28 by armed and masked officers of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Previously, two clips released last week focused on Sofia confirming allegations by Tei that he had showered Shamsul with RM630,000 worth of gifts and cash, as well as her naming Anwar and MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki as being complicit in a plan to secretly record more than a dozen Sabah ruling politicians admitting to receiving bribes in exchange for mineral licences.

The videos have been released by Tei since late last year.

On Nov 25, he said that the idea to record them came from Shamsul with Anwar's approval.

He said he had approached Shamsul hoping he would help him negotiate with Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor to recover the money he had paid to the politicians.

Shamsul has since resigned, while Sofia has denied everything she was heard agreeing with Tei about in the video.

The duo, along with Tei, are currently in MACC custody as the commission has launched an investigation into the allegations.

The investigation has been clouded by the claim that Azam also had knowledge of the plot to record the Sabah politicians, with growing calls from lawyers and anti-graft activists for him to either step down from the anti-graft agency or go on leave due to a conflict of interest.