SINGAPORE: Over about five years, the leader of a gambling syndicate made a profit of about S$ 1.28 million ( US$ 980, 000 ) from bets punters made on the outcomes of Singapore Pools ‘ 4D and TOTO games as well as football matches.
He coerced his girl, his son-in-law, and his friends into the illegal enterprise, allowing his partner to use illegal gambling funds to pay a BMW automobile in part.
On Wednesday ( Sep. 4), Shunmugam Mogan, 66, entered a guilty plea to seven counts, most of which were committed under the Organised Crime Act, including providing a remote gambling services to residents of Singapore and recruiting people to join the organized criminal group.
After the prosecutor asked the counsel to correct some issues in her proposals, punishment was adjourned to consider additional seven charges.
THE Event
The jury heard that Mogan was the top master adviser and investor of the gang and headed it with his partner, 57-year-old Rabiah Kamaruddin.
Mogan hired agents and master brokers to oversee the online gambling industry and coordinate negotiations with rivals to obtain bets and receive winnings.
His girl helped him with creating master agents and agent accounts, which would track the amount of winnings and regular bets that needed to be gathered and paid up.
The two Singapore were in charge of other gang members, performing various tasks, including distributing reward money, creating betting balances, and receiving or collecting bets.
Mogan allegedly obtained balances from an unidentified person he knew as” Samm” on five illegal gambling sites at some point in the early part of 2015.
He owned these sites from February 2, 2015 to February 7, 2020, and operated the gaming service on them.
He would have at least seven punters under him and had bet on the results of Singapore Pools 4D and TOTO activities as well as football games.
RECRUITMENT AND GAMBLING RING USE
Mogan hired at least 20 masterminds and providers to collect the wagers for him. If any of their bettors won the lottery, he offered them a fee of 10 % of the stakes they placed on, as well as a further fee of 5 % of the winnings.
Rabiah was instructed to create betting accounts for officials and punters and give them to the individual individuals by Mogan because he had no computer skills to manage his accounts on the websites.
Rabiah also assisted Mogan in figuring out the total outstanding sum they had to pay him, as well as the winnings and losses from the agents ‘ and punters ‘ accounts on a weekly basis.
She kept Mogan, his officials, and his son-in-law Dinesh Rajantheran informed of the rewards and loss, while Mogan collected the wager money from his agents and gamblers either by himself or through Rabiah or his son-in-law Dinesh Rajantheran.
Rabiah may keep the bet finances in her apartment, including Mogan’s profits from the improper organization.
On each bring moment between 2018 and end-March 2020, Mogan and his officials collected between S$ 6, 000 and S$ 10, 000 fair of 4D bet through the illegitimate websites.
This meant that he collected between S$ 18, 000 and S$ 30, 000 in 4D bets per year, for a total of at least S$ 1.08 million to S$ 1.8 million in 4D bet over 15 months.
On the illegal bets placed by the officials and gamblers under him, Mogan made a committee of 10 %. As a shareholder, he even earned a share of the profits made by each of the five sites.
The amount of money he made had a bearing on the amount of money that each investor and the agents under them had raised, as opposed to the total amount of money raised for any pick.
For instance, if Mogan and his agents collected S$ 10, 000 worth of bet and another investor collected S$ 20, 000, Mogan may get one-third of the income while the other investor may get two-thirds.
On average, Mogan made a gain of about S$ 5, 000 per week from the bets collected on the sites.
Between Feb 2, 2015, and Sep 2, 2020, excluding the COVID-19″ loop break” time in 2020 when Singapore Pools suspended draws, Mogan earned an estimated total income of about S$ 1.28 million from the stakes collected through the sites.
Mogan also arranged for additional members to join the syndicate in order to expand the number of bettors and boost the profits made. In 2018, he hired his associates Mahendran Nithia Annathan and David Dharesh Taufiq.
In the middle of 2018, he even recruited his son-in-law Dinesh, who started out collecting bet for two of the illegal gambling sites and eventually rose to the position of master adviser with 10 gamblers under his control.
Mogan likewise encouraged Rabiah to pay off her hire-purchase product, which she used to transfer funds from agents and punters to her bank account, to pay off her BMW 428i Gran Coupe vehicle.
Rabiah did so using S$ 118, 084 worth of imagine finances over 60 instalment payments to make partial payment for the S$ 256, 900-priced vehicles.
A group of police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department ( CID ) seized Mogan and Rabiah on September 7, 2020, and detained them at a void deck in Bedok based on information they had gathered.
At the time, seven additional members of the couple’s consortium were also detained.
The seven were: Dinesh, 37, David Dharesh Taufiq, 33, Sean Lavin Pasion Emile, 26, Aw-Yeong Kien Hsin, 49, Sharavanan Joseph Vadivel, 48, Heng Aik Peng Bernard, 39, and Tan Yong Huat, who has since died.
According to the prosecutor, Mogan was the syndicate’s leader with strong summary and control, and the prosecution requested a total sentence of 46 to 53 months in prison and a fine of S$ 129, 000.
She said there must be an increase in his statement compared with Rabiah, who was sentenced to 31 times ‘ prison and a great of S$ 192, 000 on Monday.
However, the prosecutor adjourned punishment until Sep 10 to address some of her objections and revoked the decision.
Mr. Ramesh Tiwary, who has not yet submitted oral arguments regarding punishment or reduction, represents Mogan.