I made S$6.2m fixing matches: Wilson Raj

SINGAPORE — Some US$10 million (S$12.5 million) passed through his hands from between 80 and 100 matches fixed worldwide. That is the latest claim from Singapore’s most notorious match-fixer, Wilson Raj Perumal, who gave United States broadcaster CNN a wide-ranging interview about his criminal activities.

Meeting with CNN’s Don Riddell over two days in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, recently, Wilson Raj’s four-hour taped interview, portions of which aired this week, included revelations such as his first attempt at international match-fixing — a friendly between Zimbabwe and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1997 — which ended in failure.

Wilson Raj claims that several Zimbabwean players agreed to lose 4-0, in return for a share of US$100,000. But the game played in Kuala Lumpur finished in a 2-2 draw, mainly because “one player accidentally kicked the ball into the net”.

A decade later, Wilson Raj again targeted Zimbabwe, in what became known as the “Asiagate” scandal, with players and officials receiving bribes to fix a string of matches between 2007 and 2009.

“I never really counted, but I think it should be between 80 and 100 football matches,” Wilson Raj admitted when asked how many matches he has fixed, although Riddell added that football administrators suspect the number is higher.

So total was his immersion into clubs and their players that Wilson Raj “was on the bench at times, and telling players what to do, giving orders to the coach. It was that easy”.

The Internet era, he said, made it open season for match-fixers: “We could see all these matches around the world ... I had the opportunity to target vulnerable countries ... people who were prone to (accepting) bribes.”

Former FIFA match-fixing investigator Terry Steans was shocked at the level of corruption that Wilson Raj was able to carry out.

Steans told CNN that the Singaporean had as many as 38 countries in his contacts book — in all of them were officials and players.

“There were over 50 (countries). FIFA has 209 associations ... so we are talking a quarter of FIFA associations for one fixer,” he said. “As we now know, he used most of these people and used them for his own ends and his syndicate’s ends and made a lot of money out of it.”

Wilson Raj claims to have rigged games at the Olympics, World Cup qualifiers, the women’s World Cup, the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the African Cup of Nations. In total he estimates he made around US$5 million (S$6.2 million) from match-fixing, although all of his wealth has been gambled away.

Imprisoned three times between 1995 and 2011 — the last time in Finland for fixing matches there — Wilson Raj now resides in Budapest where earlier this year he published a book, Kelong Kings, in collaboration with two Italian journalists.

While insisting he has turned over a new leaf, Wilson Raj also shows no remorse for his actions.

“I have no regrets. It was like, it was a phase of my life and I enjoyed it ... I had a good time.”

In February last year, Europol said its investigations uncovered more than 680 suspicious matches — including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and two Champions League games — with evidence that a Singapore-based crime group is closely involved in match-fixing.

Last September, Singapore authorities arrested 14 people in a match-fixing swoop, with four subsequently issued with detention orders, with the alleged mastermind Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan, said to be among them.