Writer of Nikkei Asia's opinion piece on KTV lounges fined for having thousands of obscene videos, pictures

SINGAPORE — A 29-year-old man, who kept more than 3,000 lewd videos and photos on his phone and computer, on Friday (April 8) became the last of four individuals to be sentenced for their roles in a sex-themed chat group on messaging application Telegram. 

Wong Ming Jun, also known as Andy Wong, was fined S$42,000 after he pleaded guilty last week to two charges of possessing obscene films and one count of possessing obscene static images.

Eight other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

He did not share any material in the chat group named “Sam’s lots of CB collection”, which contained leaked sexual videos and images of women. The police previously said that they were circulated without their consent.

On Oct 24, 2019, the authorities received a report against the group. Wong and three other men were then arrested on Nov 6 that year for being part of the group.

As for Wong’s criminal offences, the court heard that he joined the Telegram chat group around November 2018, which is linked to adult-themed online forum Sammyboy. The forum contained hyperlinks allowing users to join the Telegram group.

It grew to have more than 25,000 members at one point.

When Wong was arrested at his home, he had 119 obscene videos on his laptop and 2,257 obscene videos on his mobile phone. He had downloaded them from the internet and retained them for his personal use.

He also had 1,454 obscene pictures on his mobile phone. He similarly downloaded some from the internet, while others were photos he had taken of himself, his friends and his partners.

The other three men involved — administrator Lincoln Anthony Fernandez, 31; Tan Yeow Cheong, 40; and Yee Wing Kay, 47 — have been jailed and fined. Unlike Wong, the trio had uploaded obscene images onto the Telegram group chat.

They were charged on July last year, days after Wong’s opinion piece — titled “The institutional failures behind Singapore's latest Covid outbreak” — was published in Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia.

The commentary criticised Singapore's law enforcement agencies for their “failure” to clamp down on vice activities at karaoke television (KTV) lounges, the source of a then-active Covid-19 cluster.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, as well as Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, then slammed the article and said that it was “full of inaccuracies”.

The article is still available on Nikkei Asia’s website and has been updated to include a link to clarifications by the Singapore Government.

'CAREER PROSPECTS AFFECTED'

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Bryont Chin sought a fine of between S$42,000 and S$42,500, arguing that a custodial term was not warranted despite the large number of obscene films Wong held. This was because Wong kept them for his own personal use.

The prosecutor also rebutted several of Wong's arguments, which he had made through his defence counsel Siraj Shaik Aziz of law firm Silvester Legal. The defence had asked for a fine of S$27,500.

In Wong's mitigation plea, Mr Aziz argued that there was an "inordinate delay in prosecution" because 20 months had lapsed between when he was first investigated and when he was charged.

Mr Aziz also pointed to prejudice that Wong had suffered from being investigated and prosecuted, which supposedly affected his career prospects. He had lost several freelance writing jobs, including with Asian Military Review, when his case was first reported in the news.

In response, DPP Chin told the court that the authorities required time to individually view Wong's and his co-accused's material.

As for the prejudice argument, the prosecution objected to this, highlighting a TODAY article that Wong had penned about quitting his corporate finance job to become a container prime-mover driver.

DPP Chin noted that he gave only two reasons in the article for switching from a white-collar to blue-collar job: Corporate finance was not his cup of tea, and the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic would reduce pay and security for white-collar jobs.

"It is clear neither reason had anything to do with investigations or prosecution," the prosecutor said.

"He described in the article how he thrived. He enjoyed the competitive salary and was promoted to a foreman five months after starting work."

In his mitigation plea, Wong also described facing online harassment when his case was reported. DPP Chin said that he "has only himself to blame for any negative publicity he received due to his criminal actions".

Principal District Judge Toh Han Li agreed with DPP Chin, saying that there was no inordinate delay in prosecution and that the consequences of Wong's actions was not a mitigating factor.

Those convicted of possessing obscene films can be jailed for up to six months or fined up to S$20,000, or both, for each charge.

In a similar case, an administrator of the sex-themed “SG Nasi Lemak” Telegram chat group was jailed and fined.

Another administrator was given a mandatory treatment order, which directs offenders suffering from certain treatable psychiatric conditions to undergo treatment with a court-appointed psychiatrist.

Two others were given probation for distributing obscene material in the group, which is no longer accessible but had more than 44,000 members when it was active.