2 men jailed for blackmailing another man over his cross-dressing, sexual orientation

SINGAPORE — After Moses Marshal Rajendran had sex with another man, he hatched a plan to blackmail the man who had dressed like a woman during their sexual activities.

Moses and his friend, David Vijaysurya Vincent Mohindas, threatened to reveal the victim’s sexual orientation and his cross-dressing tendencies unless he gave them money. The victim ended up handing over more than S$30,000.

For this and several other unrelated offences, Moses, 38, and David, 45, were each sentenced to jail on Thursday (Sept 8).

Moses was sentenced to a total of two years and seven months’ jail along with three strokes of the cane, while David was jailed for two years and two months.

In relation to the blackmail plot, both men pleaded guilty to an offence of criminal intimidation. David also admitted to a cheating charge, while Moses admitted to breaking into David's home to steal from him.

As for their other unrelated offences, David pleaded guilty to three other charges of cheating and harassment, while Moses pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing grievous hurt.

THE PLOT

The court heard that in 2020, Moses met a man on the social networking application Tagged. When they arranged to meet at a hotel, the other man suggested that they return to his home instead.

The two men then engaged in sexual activities, which involved the victim cross-dressing.

The following morning, Moses told David what had happened and they then plotted to get money from the victim.

Moses later introduced David to the victim under the pretext of David wanting to get to know him.

When all of them met at a cafe, Moses and David then threatened to disclose the victim’s sexual orientation and his habit of cross-dressing. Not wanting others to know that he cross-dressed, the victim gave S$2,200 to the duo.

The next morning, David told the victim to prepare S$30,000 so that he could help negotiate a settlement with Moses.

When the victim said that he did not have this sum, David suggested that he get it from his mother by saying that he had lost money in investments. The victim complied and handed over the sum to David’s girlfriend on his instructions.

David and his girlfriend proceeded to spend most of the S$30,000 on things such as gold jewellery, electronic appliances and clothing.

Shortly afterwards, Moses demanded his share of the money from David. When he went over to David's home, he realised that the door and gate were unlocked and ajar.

When he entered the flat, he noticed a new television set and that David and his girlfriend were wearing new gold jewellery. The two men then had a heated argument.

Moses proceeded to steal several items from the couple, including a laptop, gold jewellery, wallet and S$900 cash.

The victim of both men made a police report a few days later. No restitution has been made.

OTHER OFFENCES

Separately, David cheated 12 people who were looking to rent a Housing and Development Board flat.

He tricked them out of S$12,350 over a span of two years from 2018 to 2020, using the money for his personal expenses.

David got them to hand over money as deposits or advance rent, enlisting the help of his neighbour to facilitate the viewing of his own flat or collect payments from the victims on his behalf.

After receiving the money, he made excuses to terminate the agreement or made himself unreachable.

Some of the victims grew suspicious and withdrew from the agreement after David asked for more money.

David also used vulgarities on a safe distancing ambassador the day after executing his blackmail plot. He was unhappy with the ambassador for reminding him to wear his face mask properly as part of Covid-19 regulations.

In another incident, Moses and his brother-in-law confronted a 52-year-old man and damaged the victim’s window in order to climb into his flat.

They assaulted him, with Moses repeatedly slashing him with a chopper. He admitted to having been drunk during this incident.

This happened on April 16, 2020 during a partial lockdown at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.