SINGAPORE: A football match-fixing ring based in Singapore was the world’s “largest and most aggressive” such operation, the Interpol chief said in remarks published on Tuesday after the arrest of the group’s suspected mastermind.
International Criminal Police Organization Secretary-General Ronald Noble hailed the arrest in Singapore last week of 14 suspects.
“I’m confident that Singapore law enforcement authorities have arrested the mastermind and leader of the world’s most notorious match-fixing syndicate,” Noble said in remarks carried by a local newspaper.
“It is significant because this syndicate is considered the world’s largest and most aggressive match-fixing syndicate, with tentacles reaching every continent and the mastermind was someone many believed was untouchable,” Noble was quoted as saying without mentioning any name.
A source has confirmed that among those arrested was Singaporean businessman Dan Tan, the syndicate’s suspected head. He and four others are now being held without bail under a tough law designed for criminal gang members.
Another newspaper quoted Noble as saying that the arrests were the result of Singapore and Interpol’s Global Anti-Match-Fixing Task Force coordination.
The Interpol chief spoke to the local media after attending a ceremony for the construction of an Interpol complex in Singapore.
The European police agency Europol in February said it had smashed a network rigging hundreds of games, including in the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers.
Europol said at that time that a five-country probe had identified 380 suspicious matches targeted by a Singapore-based betting cartel, whose illegal activities stretched to players, referees and officials across the world.
Tan, whose full name is Tan Seet Eng, has denied involvement in match-fixing.
Tan, however, has a standing warrant for his arrest issued by Italian investigators over the wide-ranging football betting scandal, which implicated a swathe of big names and clubs.
In May, Tan was also charged in Hungary over the alleged manipulation of 32 games in three countries.
In the latest case within Singapore, three Lebanese referees were convicted in June of accepting sexual services in return for fixing future games. (Reuters)
