Lie was not material to warrant a harsher sentence as it did not delay investigations: Judge

The former wife of alleged match-fixing kingpin Dan Tan was yesterday sentenced to two months’ jail, after a judge last week found her guilty of giving false information to a Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) investigator.

The prosecution, which had pushed for a jail term of four to six months, intends to appeal against the sentence.

District Judge Lee Poh Choo said Guan Enmei’s offence “cannot be taken lightly as she knew the enormity of the international match-fixing saga” that involved her former husband.

The judge disagreed with the defence’s stand that Guan, 41, had lied in a state of panic, but said that her lie was not so material as to warrant a harsher sentence. “Whatever her intention and motives were, the falsehood did not delay investigations,” District Judge Lee said.

Guan had told a CPIB officer that she left her home on June 6, 2013, only with her handbag, and denied that she also took along a paperbag containing two laptops said to belong to Tan. She also claimed during the trial that she had never been asked about the laptops during questioning by the CPIB.

The court heard that on that morning, Tan had instructed Guan to retrieve two laptops from the study in their home before he left for CPIB to assist with investigations.

Hours later, Guan was also called up for investigation. En route to CPIB, she called convicted match-fixer Eric Ding, a friend of her ex-husband, for advice. Before entering the bureau, she handed the laptops to her chauffeur and told him to wait at a coffee shop nearby.

Midway through her interview, CPIB officers apprehended the chauffeur and seized the laptops.

When convicting Guan last week after a two-day trial in May, District Judge Lee found her an “evasive and unreliable” witness.

“(Guan) portrayed herself as a meek housewife who was ignorant of her husband’s activities and business … I did not believe her. She struck me as a savvy, knowledgeable and capable lady,” the judge had said.

Guan had a “sinister” motivation for providing false information, and that was to “actively obstruct” the CPIB from obtaining evidence likely to be relevant to international match-fixing, the prosecution had charged.

Yesterday, Guan’s case was mentioned a second time after District Judge Lee’s verdict, as the prosecution sought a stay in sentence pending an appeal. Her bail has been doubled to S$20,000.

Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Guan faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to S$10,000 for the offence.

Tan, allegedly the “mastermind” of the world’s largest and most aggressive football match-fixing syndicate, has been detained without trial under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Ng Siqi Kelly

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