Four men charged for attempting to fix SEA Games match

SINGAPORE — A Singaporean was among four men charged today (May 30) for his alleged role in conspiring to fix a SEA Games football match.

Rajendran R Kurusamy, 55, was accused of corruptly agreeing to give S$15,000 to Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes - the Technical Director of the Football Federation of Timor Leste - as a reward, in exchange for arranging for his football team to lose their SEA Games match against Malaysia. Rajendran denied the charge.

Orlando is also the team manager for the football team fielded by Timor Leste for the SEA Games. Court documents revealed that Rajendran had met the official at Orchid Country Club on May 28.

Orlando was charged today for allegedly agreeing to accept the money.

Two other men were also charged for their alleged roles in the conspiracy. They are former Timor Leste football player Moises Natalino De Jesus, and Indonesian Nasiruddin.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Khoo asked for the four men to be remanded a week, for further investigations. He said the arrests were part of a large operation by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), and there are many persons-of-interest.

He added that not all have been apprehended.

Members of the Timor Leste SEA Games football team are also assisting the CPIB in its investigations.

The men will be back in court on Jun 5. If found guilty of corruption, the men could be jailed up to five years and fined S$100,000. CHANNEL NEWSASIA