He said the recording was taken out of context and that Tei had approached Sabah assemblymen for supporting letters for his applications for mining licences under multiple companies.

Joachim said Tei approached the Sabah assemblymen in 2022, while the video of him was recorded in 2024, in the early stages of the so-called Kinabalu Move.

“He asked, and I told him – look, if you want to donate money to the party, I will use it for the election. I did not ask from you,” he was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini.

Joachim also said that any contribution from Tei was a voluntary political donation to PBS, not a bribe.

When asked why he did not file a police report against Tei, the PBS leader said he had already given investigators his WhatsApp records and a full statement.

Lodging a separate police report would have been redundant and politically damaging, he said.

“In fact, they (investigators) didn’t even ask me. The first thing I said was, ‘Okay, I’ll give it to you’,” he added.

He expressed confidence that the truth would emerge following the investigation.

Joachim said officials had discovered that Tei was linked to as many as 19 companies, believed to have been used as a front for other activities.

He said the proposal, which relied on support letters from the assemblymen, was rejected by the person in charge as it constituted licence stacking and cartelisation – effectively forming a covert consortium capable of monopolising Sabah’s mineral resources.

“Each assemblyperson didn’t know he was also going to see another one. They had no idea about each other. Only the person in charge could see the whole picture, because everything goes through one office.

“When it was discovered that one individual controlled the entire thing, the answer was clear: this cannot be allowed,” Joachim said.

In July, Joachim denied allegations implicating him in the mining scandal in the state after Malaysiakini quoted a source as saying that the PBS leader had received a RM600,000 bribe.