S'porean in football bribery case posts $300,000 bail
Kelong accused hugs relative, leaves in car after $300,000 bail is posted
Businessman Rajendar Prasad Rai hugged a female relative inside the State Courts after his $300,000 bail was posted yesterday morning.
Rai, 42, is one of two Singaporeans accused of bribing football players in the StarHub League Cup in July last year.
Together with Francis Donahue Marcel, 39, Rai was said to have offered three to four players from Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) $3,000 each to fix the outcome of SRC's match against Balestier Khalsa.
Balestier Khalsa beat SRC 2-0.
But it remains unclear who the footballers were or if they had accepted the bribes.
Both Rai and Marcel were charged on Monday last week.
Marcel was offered bail of $50,000 yesterday and it was unclear if he had posted it.
CHARGES
Aside from one offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Marcel was also accused of three counts of living on the earnings of three prostitutes between April and August 2012, one count of harbouring a woman for the purpose of prostitution and two counts of managing pubs for the purpose of prostitution.
Rai, on the other hand, faced a second count of corruption.
He had allegedly commissioned a bribe of 25,000 euros (S$39,800) to three Macedonian men as a reward to fix the outcome of a club friendly played in Antalya, Turkey, between Belgium's SC Charleroi and Holland's VVV Venlo.
The match was played on Jan 11, 2013, and ended with Venlo winning 1-0.
The money had allegedly been given to the three men by one Shree Manish Kalra the next day.
One ex-Fifa investigator said this is not the first time that Singaporeans had been linked to fixed matches in Antalya, Turkey (See report above).
Outside the State Courts yesterday, a bearded Rai walked towards a waiting silver car.
He shielded his face with a newspaper while his big-sized sibling blocked photographers.
The pair will be in court again on Nov 2.
S'pore link to Turkey matches in 2011
It feels like deja vu for ex-Fifa investigator Terry Steans.
In 2011, he had investigated a Singapore syndicate which had fixed international friendlies in Antalya, Turkey.
The matches involving Estonia and Bulgaria, and Latvia and Bolivia were suspicious as all seven goals were scored through penalties.
Mr Steans told The New Paper yesterday: "In that instance, referees from Bosnia were used who were not Fifa qualified."
A Singaporean match fixer had organised the event using a front company.
In an interview with TNP in 2011, an official from the Estonian Football Association said betting analysis reports showed that "somebody around the world had made millions of euros on the matches".
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