Indian-origin Singaporean faces match-fixing bribe charge

A 55-year-old Indian-origin Singaporean was among four men charged today in a court here over his alleged role in conspiring to fix a football match at the South East Asia Games which begins here next week.
Rajendran R Kurusamy was accused of corruptly agreeing to give 15,000 Singapore dollars to Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes - the Technical Director of the Football Federation of Timor Leste - as a reward, in exchange for arranging for his football team to lose their SEA Games match against Malaysia.
Rajendran - who received a 27-month jail sentence in 1997 for attempting to bribe three players in S-League (Singapore football league) - denied the charge, local media reported.

He was jailed for another 24 months two years later for agreeing to give 20,000 dollars to a prison warder to smuggle him a mobile phone that he had used to make football bets and illegal personal calls, The Straits Times reported.
Orlando, the 49-year-old team manager for the football team fielded by Timor Leste for the SEA Games, was charged today over allegedly agreeing to accept the money.
The court documents showed Rajendran had met the official at Singapore's Orchid Country Club on May 28, according to another report by the Channel News Asia.

Former Timor Leste football player Moises Natalino De Jesus, 32, and Indonesian Nasiruddin, 52, were also charged over their alleged roles in the conspiracy.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Khoo asked for the four men to be remanded a week, for further investigations.
The men will be back in court on June 5. If found guilty of corruption, they could be jailed up to five years and fined 1,00,000 dollars.
The arrests were part of a large operation by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), and there are many persons-of-interest, Nicholas said, adding that not all have been apprehended.
Members of the Timor Leste SEA Games football team are also assisting the CPIB in its investigations.
Singapore is hosting the SEA regional Games from June 5 to 16.