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Did Dan Tan Seet Eng arrange to turn off lights during Barca-Fernerbahce match?
March 18, 2013 - 1:58am
By: Dilenjit Singh Zaihan Mohamed Yusof
Singapore alleged match fixer Dan Tan Seet Eng has been accused of keeping the football world in the dark by switching off the floodlights during a
Champions League match between Barcelona and Fenerbahce in September 2001 in an attempt to get the match called off.
According to German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, the Singaporean admitted that the blackout was his handiwork.
The alleged match-fixing financier highlighted the large sums of money he dealt in, telling the German publication that his highest winnings on a single match was 15 million euros (S$24.5 million) for a match in Italy’s top tier football competition, Serie A.
Read the full report in The New Paper on Monday (March 18).
SINGAPOREAN TAN SEET ENG: MAIN SUSPECT FOR THE WORLD'S LARGEST MATCH-FIXING SCANDAL
It's a conventional life for a well-to-do Singaporean businessman: he lives in a condo, drives a BMW and enjoys trips to the casino, according to people familiar with his routine.
The difference is that Tan Seet Eng -- better known in global law-enforcement circles as Dan Tan -- is the key suspect in what could be the biggest match-fixing scandal in football history.
When news broke this week that nearly 700 games, mainly in Europe, had been targeted by Singaporean-linked fixers, questions were immediately raised about Tan, who has been in the spotlight for the past 18 months.
His name has cropped up in multiple investigations. In the latest probe revealed by Europol, hundreds of players and officials are under suspicion, 14 people have been sentenced and more than 100 prosecutions are expected.
But the head of Interpol complains that, while the integrity of the world's most popular sport is under threat, the alleged ringleaders are living freely. Tan, in a rare interview in 2011, vigorously protested his innocence and said he was mystified as to why he had been accused.
"Why I'm suddenly described as a match-fixer, I don't know. I'm innocent," he told Singapore's The New Paper. "If there's anything against me, I can take it to court and fight it."
Tan, an ethnic Chinese man in his forties, first reached public attention in 2011, when his alleged partner and fellow Singaporean Wilson Raj Perumal was arrested in Finland, convicted of match-fixing and jailed.
Perumal, believed to be a key source for blowing open the "calcioscommesse" scandal in Italy, as well as this week's Europol revelations, maintains he was double-crossed by Tan and named him as a key figure in his fixing syndicate.
Italian police have issued an arrest warrant for Tan, and court papers quoted by The New Paper called him the "leader" of an international fixing ring. Reports have named him in a German court case and police probes in several countries. According to Perumal, who spoke to the "Invisible Dog" investigative website last year, Tan was still active as recently as June.
"If you arrest Dan Tan, the signal it gives is that investigators can reach out and touch you," said Zaihan Mohamed Yusof, The New Paper's investigative reporter who interviewed Tan. But Tan appears to feel secure in Singapore, according to Zaihan, who recounted his routines including trips to the casino.
"It doesn't make any sense for him to leave the country, he could be arrested. It's safer for him to be in Singapore," the reporter told AFP.
Attempts to contact Tan this week failed. His listed phone numbers are disconnected, and a visit to his home, a run-down condominium next to a suburban shopping mall, proved fruitless. Singapore is considered the nexus of global match-rigging after fixers learned their trade in the local leagues and neighbouring Malaysia.
With the birth of online gambling, Singaporean fixers were perfectly placed to take advantage, with contacts in the European leagues and criminal gangs, and in the underworlds of Asia where illicit betting is possible on a huge scale.
Last month, Interpol secretary-general Ronald Noble said match-fixing generates hundreds of billions of dollars around the world each year, comparing the revenues to multinationals such as drinks giant Coca-Cola. With enormous pressure now on to smash the match-fixing syndicates, Singapore, a wealthy island state known for its low crime and low corruption, is squirming in the glare of attention.
Its powerful Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said "match-fixing of any form is not condoned in Singapore" and that it investigates allegations of game-rigging through bribery.
Since 2005, the CPIB has investigated eight such cases in Singapore, with 11 individuals charged and convicted, it said in a statement. However, the CPIB also told AFP it was not involved in matters concerning Interpol.
Singapore's police force has confined its comments to a few terse statements saying it is cooperating with Europol and Interpol, including handing over information about Tan. But it said it needed hard evidence to make arrests.
"A question that really must be asked is why so little is being done to question Singaporean individuals allegedly involved in such a global match-fixing operation," Neil Humphreys, a Singapore-based football columnist and author of the novel, "Match Fixer", told AFP.
Interpol chief Noble told the Straits Times: "Until arrests are made in Singapore and until actual names, dates and specific match-fixing details are given, these organised criminals will appear above the law and Singapore's reputation will continue to suffer."
Suspected mastermind behind global football match-fixing ring 'assisting' police with inquiries
Dan Tan Seet Eng is accused of heading the syndicate that made millions of dollars betting on rigged Italian football matches
The crime syndicate is thought to be made up of people from Singapore and the Balkans
Italian police arrested Tan's alleged associate Admir Suljic on Thursday
Europol announced it had found 680 'suspicious' games since 2008
By ALEX WARD PUBLISHED: 21:05 GMT, 22 February 2013 | UPDATED: 23:45 GMT, 22 February 2013
The suspected mastermind behind a global match-fixing ring rigging hundreds of football games, including some of the world’s biggest matches, is ‘assisting’ police with inquiries.Singaporean businessman Dan Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan, is accused of heading a crime syndicate that made millions of dollars betting on rigged Italian football matches. The Singapore Police Force confirmed that they were questioning Tan and it is thought he is a key figure in the ‘Last Bet’ investigation into corruption in football by global law enforcers Interpol.
Members of the betting syndicate named in international arrest warrants. Dan Tan Seet Eng is pictured top left
Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said the arrest of Admir Suljic and the questioning of Singaporean businessman Dan Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan, show that they are not above the law
The crime group is thought to be made up of people from Singapore and the Balkans and are believed to have manipulated the results of Italian league matches in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.
A police statement said: ‘Dan Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean who has been named in reports so far, is currently assisting Singapore authorities in their investigations.‘We have been offering assistance and sharing available information with affected countries and will continue to do so.’
'Key element': Admir Suljic was arrested on Thursday accused of criminal association aimed at sporting fraud and considered key in the probe into match-fixing between 2009 and 2011
The move came after Italian police arrested Tan's alleged associate, Slovenian Admir Suljic, on Thursday, after he had been on the run since December 2011. Police in Singapore gave information to Interpol which made Suljic’s arrest possible. Suljic, who is accused of criminal association aimed at sporting fraud, flew to Milan from Singapore to turn himself in to the authorities. He is considered a 'key element' in the probe into match-fixing between 2009 and 2011. An arrest warrant has also been issued for Tan but the Singapore Police Force did not say if it would turn him in to international authorities.
Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said the arrest of Suljic, followed by the questioning of Tan, is ‘important because the world believes that law enforcement can't do anything to take down this criminal organisation, the world believes that (Tan) and his associates can't be touched, that they are above the law’.Mr Noble said: ‘We will follow the rule of law. ‘The hope is that (the suspect) will cooperate with law enforcement and tell us all he knows.’ Italian Police said Suljic would be taken to a prison in the city of Cremona. The Italian police said in a statement: ‘His direct involvement in the international criminal group, made of Singapore nationals and people from the Balkans, has emerged from the investigation.’
FIFA's security director Ralf Mutschke (pictured with Mr Noble) admitted soccer officials had underestimated the scope of match-fixing after FIFA revealed estimates that organised crimes takes as much as £9.6bn a year by fixing matches
The Singapore police statement continued: ‘In response to media queries, the Singapore Police Force confirms that it had informed Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) Rome and Interpol's Command and Coordination Centre at Interpol HQ in Lyon, France of the travel plans of a person wanted by the Italian authorities for investigations into match-fixing.‘The Singapore Police provided this information as part of the regular and ongoing exchange that the Singapore Police Force has with its counterparts.‘The person has since been arrested by the Italian authorities and NCB Rome has sent a message to NCB Singapore thanking the Police for its support in this matter.’
'Arrogantly happening daily': Chris Eaton, from the International Centre for Sport Security, said: 'Football is in a disastrous state'
The investigation comes as official football bodies revealed that football has become a multi-million pound industry for the mafia, Chinese gangsters and Russian crooks which is fuelled by match fixing.Internet betting, criminal gangs and even the economic downturn have all contributed to making football an obvious target for the criminal underworld. At least 50 nations in 2012 had match-fixing investigations - almost a quarter of the 209 members of football's governing body FIFA.
Europol, the European Union's police body, announced last week it had found 680 'suspicious' games worldwide since 2008, including 380 in Europe. 'Football is in a disastrous state', said Chris Eaton, director of sport integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security. 'Fixing of matches for criminal gambling fraud purposes is absolutely endemic worldwide... arrogantly happening daily.'FIFA has estimated that organised crime takes in as much as £9.6billion a year by fixing matches.
In Italy alone, a recent rigging scandal is estimated to have produced £1.6 billion for the Camorra and the Mafia crime syndicates, Eaton said.The total amount of money generated by sports betting would equal the gross domestic product of Switzerland, ranked 19th in the world.Sportradar, a company in London that monitors global sports betting, estimates that about 300 football games a year in Europe alone could be rigged. And criminals have realised it can be easier to shift gambling profits across borders.
'These are real criminals — Italian mafia, Chinese gangs, Russian mafia,' said Sylvia Schenk, a sports expert with corruption watchdog Transparency International.While Ralf Mutschke, FIFA's security chief, admits that soccer officials have underestimated the scope of match-fixing. He told Associated Press that 'realistically, there is no way' FIFA can tackle organised crime by itself, saying it needs more help from national law enforcement agencies.Match-fixing is used by gambling rings to make money off bets they know they will win. Matches also are rigged to propel a team into a higher-ranking division where it can earn more revenue.
