Just a week after being released from a 2013 arrest, 51-year-old Singapore businessman, Dan Tan, also known as Tan Seet Eng, was arrested again by police on Tuesday, December 1st for “involvement in criminal activities.”
According to the Associate Press, one of Tan’s lawyers, Hamidul Haq, said that the specific charges pertaining to the new arrest are yet to be known. Haq said, “We are still finding out what the next steps are,” and, “We will want to try to see him to take instructions. I don’t know if the police will allow that.”
Tan was not arrested in Singapore until late 2013 since it doesn’t possess an extradition treaty with the European Union. He was accused of being the mastermind behind the “world’s largest and most aggressive match-fixing syndicate” that spanned to South America and made millions of dollars. He was accused of fixing dozens matches in Italy’s three top divisions in an operation that existed for more than 10 years. The law Tan was arrested under allows for indefinite dentition sans trial if deemed to be in the best interest of public safety. However, on November 25th it was ruled by the Singapore Court of Appeals that his detention was not legal and he was released.
Singapore Home Affairs and Law Minister, Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam said, “We will be advised by the AGC (Attorney General’s Chambers), who will look at the judgment and make sure that any new detention order — if such a detention order is issued — sets out the grounds adequately, fully, in compliance with the Act.”
Leading members of international sporting associations were outraged by Tan’s release. As well as being referred to as the “general director of the ring,” by Italian prosecutor Roberto Di Martino who was directing an investigation into international match-fixing. A Hungarian court is also trying Tan, in absentia, for the alleged manipulation of 32 games in Italy, Hungary and Finland.
In the early 1990’s Tan served less than a year in jail for illegal football bookmaking and horse racing, and he has admitted to serving as the director of the Singapore company Exclusive Sports PTE Ltd. Football4U, the rebranding of Exclusive Sports, was bankrolled by convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, according to Wikipedia.