Timor Leste duo jailed for SEA Games match-fixing

SINGAPORE — Two Timor Leste nationals have been sentenced to jail for their part in a conspiracy to fix a South-east Asian (SEA) Games football match earlier this year, a day after they did an about-turn and pleaded guilty.

The duo, Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes and Moises Natalino De Jesus, had initially claimed trial. Orlando, 49, was sentenced to 24 months’ jail, and Moisés, 31, was sentenced to 20 months’ jail.

In addition, Orlando was ordered by the court to pay a penalty of S$1,000.

Moises was charged with agreeing to offer bribes to players of the Timor Leste football team as well as Orlando, who was technical director of the Timor Leste football association.

The alleged bribes were a reward to arrange for the Timor Leste football team to lose their match against Malaysia on May 30.

Orlando was charged on three counts under the Prevention of Corruption Act for agreeing to accept the bribe to arrange for the Timor Leste football team to lose their match against Malaysia.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) arrested Orlando and Moises and their two co-conspirators Indonesian Nasiruddin and Singaporean Rajendran R Kurusamy before the match, which ended 1-0 in Malaysia’s favour. Nasiruddin and Rajendran — who was dubbed Singapore’s most prolific match-fixer by the prosecution — pleaded guilty earlier this year and were sentenced to 30 months’ and 48 months’ jail, respectively.

In a statement issued yesterday, the CPIB said Singapore adopts “a zero tolerance approach towards corruption, and match-fixing of any form is not condoned”.

“The CPIB will not hesitate to take action against any party involved in match-fixing related activities,” it added.