Dan Tan Seet Eng, the alleged mastermind behind a worldwide football match-fixing syndicate, has lost his latest bid for release from the Singapore prison where he has been held without trial since last October.
The detention of Mr Tan and three others “effectively dismantled” the ring, the city-state’s Home Affairs Ministry told Bloomberg.
The case came before Singapore’s High Court last month, according to newly released court papers cited by the news agency. Lawyers for the government claim Mr Tan led and financed the syndicate from 2009 to 2013 and said he should be kept in a maximum-security prison without trial for another year in the interest of public safety. His detention was extended in September for 12 months.
Mr Tan, who says he is only guilty of illegal football betting, has to decide this month if he wants to appeal, according to Bloomberg.
About €200 billion to €500 billion are wagered in the international sports-betting market, of which more than 80% is illegal, according to a May report by The University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and the International Centre for Sport Security. An estimated US$140 billion is laundered yearly through sport betting, it said.
Singapore came under international scrutiny after Europol said Mr Tan’s group tried to rig 680 games from 2008 to 2011, including World Cup and European Championship matches. The government’s lawyers claim he is behind match-fixing in at least five countries.
Mr also was charged last year in absentia in Italy and Hungary for offenses related to match-fixing.
The four were arrested in Singapore with the assistance of Interpol, Bloomberg reported, and jailed under city-state’s Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, introduced in 1955 to combat threats from communism and secret societies. The detentions are the first time the law has been used in a match-fixing case.
The others detained with Mr Tan are a former footballer who coached his son, an ex-schoolmate and a business associate.
“Offenders will continue to be dealt with firmly under our laws,” the Home Affairs ministry said.
