Singaporean man pleads guilty to ordering hitmen on dark web to kill mistress’ new boyfriend

SINGAPORE — When his lover broke up with him and began dating her colleague, Allen Vincent Hui Kim Seng saw red.

The married man began searching online and on the dark web for hitmen to hire, before chancing upon a website called Camorra Hitmen. 

He stalked the couple, sent the website a photograph of the other man that he took from her Instagram account, and asked Camorra Hitmen to splash acid on his face.

After flip-flopping between incapacitating and murdering the other man, Hui finally told the group to kill him in a staged car accident on May 22 last year. Hui paid more than S$8,000 worth of bitcoin in total.

However, the authorities arrested him before he could proceed with his plan.

Wired magazine reported last year that Camorra Hitmen was a scam site.

On Wednesday (July 17), 47-year-old Hui, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty to abetting the murder of 30-year-old Tan Han Shen by instigating Camorra Hitmen to kill him.

Another charge of criminal intimidation will be taken into consideration for sentencing, which is expected to take place on Sept 4. Hui could be jailed up to seven years and fined.

District Judge Shaifuddin Saruwan granted him time to speak to his wife, who was present in court. They have a daughter together.

ADDED HER AS CPF BENEFICIARY

The court heard that Hui — a risk management executive at the time — met Ms Ng Woan Man, now 30, at their workplace in 2016. 

They began having an affair in April that year, continuing even after Hui left the company in November. He assured her that he was planning to leave his wife, and suggested that they start living together.

Around April 2017, Ms Ng rented a flat and moved in, but he did not fulfil his promise to live there too. They each paid half of the rental fees.

When she realised he did not intend to leave his wife, she broke up with him in February 2018.

They remained on talking terms and he continued pursuing her, despite her rebuffs. He went on paying half of the rental fees, bought her gifts, and added her as a beneficiary to his Central Provident Fund account and life insurance policy.

She then began working at a different company and started dating Mr Tan in April 2018, but not before casually mentioning to Hui that she was contemplating being with the other man.

USED TOR BROWSER

Growing jealous, Hui stalked Mr Tan and monitored her social media accounts. 

When Hui found that she had been “liking” Mr Tan’s Instagram posts, he took a screenshot of Mr Tan’s Instagram profile picture and saved it in his laptop. However, Hui did not know for sure if she was dating Mr Tan.

While searching online for “hitmen for hire”, Hui was directed to download the Tor browser in order to access the dark web. He then came across Camorra Hitmen.

On April 28, 2018, while Ms Ng was out on a date with Mr Tan, Hui sent her a text message via WhatsApp asking if she was out with a male companion, and ordered her to return to the flat they shared within 15 minutes.

He also said he would be waiting for her and that “he better don’t be there, else I will kill him”. 

She did not respond to his constant text messages, so Hui decided to drive over to their rented flat around 10.30pm. He tried to spy on them from the multi-storey car park, but she had already gone into the flat.

He stalked the lift lobby till about 3am, texting her incessantly before going home.

About a week later, when Hui realised she was in a new relationship, he decided to get a hit job on her boyfriend.

STALKED THEM AT FLAT

Hui did research on how to buy and trade in bitcoins — the currency Camorra Hitmen used. On May 6, 2018, he sent them her particulars, telling them to cut off her new boyfriend’s right hand.

He did not send them the Instagram screenshot as he was not certain if Mr Tan was her boyfriend.

Hui ascertained that by stalking them at the rented flat again three days later. He had earlier bought her plane tickets to and from Malaysia, and knew the other man would pick her up from the airport at a certain time.

After identifying Mr Tan, Hui tried to get as many details on him so he could send them to Camorra Hitmen to facilitate the hit. Hui took down Mr Tan’s car number plate, and followed him to Hougang in his own car.

Hui then decided to change the hit, and told Camorra Hitmen to pour acid on the target’s face instead. Hui bought bitcoin worth about S$3,000 and transferred it to his account on the Camorra Hitmen website.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Chua told the court that the group dissuaded him from using acid as it “made avoiding detection more difficult”, so Hui eventually agreed to kill Mr Tan in a staged car accident.

However, Hui found the kill job too expensive and asked if Camorra Hitmen could change it to a freak accident that would leave Mr Tan crippled or in a wheelchair for life. 

A few hours later, Hui changed his mind again.

He ordered the fatal hit to take place at about 8pm on May 22, 2018. He knew Mr Tan would be dropping Ms Ng off at the airport before that, and he did not want her to be injured.

Hui also transferred another S$1,500 worth of bitcoin, and directed for all his online communications with Camorra Hitmen to be removed so his crimes could not be traced.

Ten days before the scheduled hit, a journalist with the American television network CBS told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about a hit ordered against a Singaporean.

It was not stated how the journalist got the information.

Hui was arrested by the police five days later.