Police track elusive figure in soccer match-fixing

ROME at 5:45 a.m. in Nov. 4, 2011, when early risers would are already sipping espressos along
with buttering toast, a guy dressed up in black disembarked at Milan's Malpensa Airport following a
13-hour trip via Asia aboard any Singapore Airlines flight.
Italian court documents display he stayed in the country just six hours and also 30 minutes, by
absolutely no means left the actual airport, and then boarded any return flight in order to Singapore.
Why this kind of quick hop over the globe?
Italian authorities believe it absolutely was to deliver bribe money. These People allege the actual
suspected courier, who was beneath surveillance, delivered info as well as cash behalf of a crime
syndicate which fixes soccer matches.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This particular story is the component of the six-month, multiformat AP
examination associated with how organized crime can be corrupting soccer through match-fixing.
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Italy, any four-time Globe Cup-winning football power, is now consequently blighted by simply
match-fixing which Premier Mario Monti has even suggested halting the actual expert game
regarding two to become able to three a extended time to wash it up.
Italian prosecutors investigating dozens associated with league along with cup games it is said had
been fixed have got followed a trail back again into a figure who's thought to be throughout
Singapore. Throughout documents laying out their particular findings, prosecutors alleged that will
48-year-old Suntan Seet Eng will end up being the boss of the crime syndicate that will allegedly
created millions betting about rigged Italian video games among 2008 and late 2011, through
bribing players, referees and club officials.
Italian authorities get issued an arrest warrant regarding Bronze and checklist him as his or perhaps
her No. one suspect, but they happen in order to be unable to consider him into custody.
"Tan Seet Eng, nicknamed Dan, surfaces within every 1 regarding the European investigations
examined, including the particular Italian one, therefore consequently he constitutes any common
thread that will hyperlinks each criminal gang together," prosecutors stated inside a 340-page court
document detailing his or her investigation, which in turn has been leaked to become able to Italian
news media. "He directs the aforementioned criminal gang."
Italian authorities get regarding 150 individuals under investigation, which includes Tan, yet haven't
yet indict some of them, prosecutor Roberto Di Martino advised Your Connected Press final month.
Italian arrest warrants can not really be served in Bronze although he is within Asia.
Di Martino, who's leading your investigation coming from Cremona inside northern Italy, said tan
will "almost certainly" continue trial in Italy, however likely inside absentia. Italy features simply no
extradition treaty with Singapore, however the Italian Justice Ministry said the particular Asian city-

state could even now send over a wanted suspect below "friendly terms" if it chooses. Di Martino
mentioned relations together with Singapore authorities "have not necessarily been great. We had
wished for more."
"At very first we really thought they will could be delivered to Italy, but that will calculation has
been wrong," Di Martino said. "If Suntan Seet Eng will go somewhere else, he could potentially be
extradited, so long as there's an extradition treaty with this country."
In Singapore, police spokeswoman Chu Guat Chiew stated authorities you will find reviewing the
information submitted through the Italians before selecting things to do, adding: "So far, Dan Suntan
Seet Eng has not been arrested for just about any offence throughout Singapore."
Police possess questioned dozens of people throughout Italy, searched your homes associated with
players as well as coaches, and descended around the Italian national squad's training camp early
one morning inside may 2012. but Di Martino said the particular investigation features turned up
just limited information regarding Tan.
"We do not really know a lot with regards to him. We don't know if he's a
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2798.htm genuine businessman associated with illegal activity, or
even if he's associated with money laundering," Di Martino said. "We're just interested up to any
specific point; then it's Singapore's problem."
Much regarding what European law enforcement authorities discovered with regards to tan
originates from a former associate, Wilson Raj Perumal. The match fixer, in addition coming from
Singapore, he was arrested in Finland inside February 2011, convicted and sentenced to 2 yrs
throughout prison pertaining to bribing Finnish league players. For You To Finnish police, Perumal
portrayed your syndicate as getting a well-oiled as well as structured business, financed along with
led via Singapore.
The syndicate mainly areas bets within China, Perumal said, based on any transcript involving his
may 18, 2011, police interview obtained through the AP. He said your team fixed "tens associated
with matches round the world" in Europe, Africa, the particular Center East and in addition the
Americas coming from 2008 in order to 2010. He estimated the actual group's total income following
expenses in "several countless euros, maybe 5-6 million" $7 million-$8 million.
The syndicate leader decides which fits to correct and just how a lot for you to wager, organizes the
betting and the drops regarding bribe money, Perumal mentioned inside the transcript. He later
identified which leader as Tan, according towards the Italian court documents. Italian police
traveled for you to Finland to interview Perumal, Di Martino informed your AP. Perumal declined AP
requests with an interview.
Perumal informed your Finnish police those funds was transported coming from Singapore
throughout couriers' pockets as well as upon their particular bodies. Italian prosecutors suspect the
actual quick vacation to Milan's airport had been one such drop. The Particular suspected courier's
checked luggage weighed 9 kilograms within Singapore but eight kilograms when he flew back. That
They mentioned the particular suspected courier likely delivered "a sum of money hidden within
some kind of container, which usually had been destined to invest in your organization's illicit
activity."
AP could not make contact with Brown throughout Singapore. 5 phone figures identified as his by
Italian prosecutors had been disconnected. Zero one answered the doorway at a condo the actual

Italians listed as his address. Mail as well as flyers stuffed beneath the door and also in the door
frame suggested nobody have been there to acquire a while.
The New Paper in Singapore reported that it spoke to end up being able to Brown within 2011.
"Why I'm suddenly described as becoming a match-fixer I don't know. I'm innocent," it quoted him as
saying. This quoted Suntan as stating he had been briefly concerned inside a business enterprise
that will Perumal started, "but I took my title from the company right after I smelled one thing
fishy."
"Maybe that's why he had named me for you to investigators," he continued. "Anybody involved with
Wilson gets negative luck. He includes a criminal record. It's not necessarily best for Singaporeans
to accomplish enterprise with him."
Perumal alleged to end up being able to Italian investigators in which Brown places syndicate
wagers in fixed games making use of legal, Asia-based online betting websites he named three of
which via intermediaries inside China. Within Shenzhen, a new southern China metropolis adjacent
for you to Hong Kong, a new 1 million euro wager in a game title throughout Serie A, the singapore
london courier extremely best Italian league, may always be placed in this way in a couple of
minutes, he told your Italians. Which method matches those described by simply betting experts.

Investigators say such gambling operations employ workers for you to rapidly location thousands of
tiny on the actual internet bets maybe no more than $1,000 each and also every about fixed games.
the scattershot associated with tiny bets, as opposed to a quantity of large ones, can help hide fixes
coming from monitoring companies within Europe designed in order to use software applications to
appear regarding unusual wagering.

"They employ kids and they employ individuals in Singapore along with Malaysia to do that
pertaining to them," stated Chris Eaton, former head of security for FIFA, soccer's governing body.
"They virtually use a sweatshop, should you like, of individuals having a big variety of bank cards as
well as laptop computers, plus they punch those ideas when they are given the green light."
"Dan Bronze includes extremely excellent Oriental connections, meaning he's not necessarily
operating as a single financier. He features a company powering him," stated Eaton, now director
regarding sport integrity at the International Centre pertaining to Sport Security, a new Qatarbacked group funding efforts for you to investigate extent regarding match-fixing and also methods
to combat it.

Eaton's successor as FIFA security director, Ralf Mutschke, stated a 12 months ago which this news
media have overstated Tan's alleged role inside match-fixing, along with which he probably isn't "as
involved as everyone is thinking" and it has simply "symbolic importance."
"But you allow him any name, thus everyone is referring to Dan Tan, and also Dan Brown syndicates,
along with Dan tan here along with Dan Bronze there," Mutschke said. "If we kill Dan tan you then
will have no match-fixing? No, I consider it isn't as primary as this."
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Leicester reported coming from Paris. Justin Bergman within Singapore along with AP Sports Author
Graham Dunbar inside Zurich contributed to this report.
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