Match-fixer Eric Ding gets 3 years’ jail

SINGAPORE – Businessman Eric Ding was sentenced to three years’ jail today (July 24), after being found guilty earlier this month of bribery.

The 32-year-old was found guilty on July 1 of three charges of bribing three Lebanese football officials with prostitutes, as an inducement to fix matches that they would officiate in future.

In his brief grounds of sentence, the district judge said that Ding’s offences were premeditated and that Ding had been “swayed by the potential profit and the difficulty in detecting such match-fixing offences due to use of the internet”.

“The accused would have known match-fixing is harmful to the global reputation of the sport and the reputation of the city in which the match-fixing takes place,” he added.

Defence counsel Hamidul Haq told the court Ding intends to appeal both the conviction and the sentence.

Ding was also denied bail pending his appeal, with the prosecution arguing that Ding had every reason to abscond. Deputy Public Prosecutor Alan Loh said Ding’s wife and daughter are Thai and live in Bangkok, and that as Ding appears to be part of a syndicate, it would not be difficult for syndicate members to support him while on the run.

Mr Loh also cited the case of match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, who fled the country after being convicted of unrelated charges. “There’s no special reason why Ding should be allowed to go on bail,” Mr Loh said.

Ding told reporters through his lawyer that he looks forward to clearing his name in the High Court.

Earlier this week, the prosecution had pressed for a stiff sentence of four to six years’ jail, and a fine of between S$120,000 and S$300,000. It said a stiff “exemplary” penalty was warranted in the public interest.

The prosecution also said that although no match-fixing had taken place, Ding should not be given any leniency just because the authorities were efficient in their arrests.

But Ding’s lawyers argued that no money had changed hands between Ding and the Lebanese officials.