Tei warns Anwar and Azam again: I won't give up

Businessman Albert Tei has again warned Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that nothing will stop him from exposing wrongdoing and corruption, as he announced a suit against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the government for forcing him to wear the orange lock-up uniform when he was brought to court to be remanded following his dramatic arrest last November.

"I would like to tell Anwar Ibrahim and (MACC chief commissioner) Azam Baki, they have underestimated my seriousness, determination and resolve in this struggle. I will never give up," he said at the Kuala Lumpur High Court after attending his case mention with lawyers N Surendran and Mahajoth Singh.

"I am the victim of injustice here. I am the complainant who exposed several scandals involving high-profile individuals."

Tei first came to prominence in late 2024 for releasing more than a dozen secretly recorded video clips of Sabah ruling politicians admitting to him that they received money in exchange for mineral licences.

However, it was his exposé involving the Prime Minister's Office last November that angered authorities and MACC, which later dispatched masked gunmen to his house to arrest him.

On Nov 25, Tei revealed screenshots of WhatsApp chats and receipts of cash and gifts he had given to Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, then the political secretary to Anwar, who resigned on the same day.

The exposé was accompanied by a secretly recorded video of Tei's conversation with a woman named Sofia Rini Buyong, whom he identified as Shamsul's proxy.

In the video, Sofia was heard saying that the plan for Tei to secretly record the Sabah politicians was devised by Shamsul with Anwar's approval, adding that Azam was also briefed about it.

On Nov 28, about a dozen MACC officers arrested Tei after a dramatic ambush at his home in Puchong, where he said guns were pointed at him and his wife.

Days later, Tei and Shamsul were brought to court for their remand hearing, both wearing MACC's orange lock-up shirt, a practice that was banned in 2019 by then MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya.

On Dec 4, Tei and Shamsul were charged with four counts of giving and receiving RM176,829.03 in gratification.

Meanwhile, Tei's lawyer Surendran said the suit filed by Tei was primarily to seek a declaration that MACC acted unconstitutionally by forcing him to wear the orange shirt.

"The question of compensation is secondary. What is important is that the court challenge is on behalf of all ordinary people. We do not want anyone to be wronged, or to be publicly humiliated even before they are found guilty," he said.

Tei said the charges against him were a message from the government to all Malaysians "not to try to disrupt their chain of corruption".

"(The government's message is) 'don't try to be a hero'. But from the beginning, I did not want to be a hero. My identity from the start was that of an informant; I did not show my face at all, but I was rejected by the enforcement agencies and dragged to court, where my face was revealed. I used to wear a mask. I did not want to be famous."