SINGAPORE: Over about five years, the leader of a gambling syndicate made a profit of about S$1.28 million (US$980,000) from bets punters made on the outcomes of Singapore Pools’ 4D and TOTO games as well as football matches.

He recruited his friends, his son-in-law and his girlfriend into the illegal enterprise, getting his girlfriend to use illicit gambling proceeds to make partial payment for a BMW vehicle.

Shunmugam Mogan, 66, pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Sep 4) to seven charges, mostly under the Organised Crime Act, for offences including providing a Singapore-based remote gambling service and recruiting members to join the organised criminal group.

Another seven charges will be considered in sentencing, which was adjourned after the judge asked the prosecutor to rectify some issues in her submissions.

THE CASE

The court heard that Mogan was the senior master agent and shareholder of the syndicate and headed it with his girlfriend, 57-year-old Rabiah Kamaruddin.

Mogan recruited agents and master agents to manage the online gambling and liaised with downlines to collect bets and pay out winnings.

His girlfriend assisted him with issuing master agent and agent accounts and would tally the weekly bets to be collected and winnings to be paid out.

The two Singaporeans had other syndicate members under them with various duties including receiving or collecting bets, distributing prize monies and creating betting accounts.

Sometime in early 2015, Mogan obtained accounts on five illegal gambling websites from an unidentified individual he knew as “Samm”.

He became a shareholder of these websites and ran the gambling services on them from Feb 2, 2015 to Sep 7, 2020.

He would receive bets on the outcome of Singapore Pools 4D and TOTO games, as well as football matches, and had at least seven punters under him.

RECRUITMENT AND OPERATIONS OF THE GAMBLING RING

Mogan recruited at least 20 agents and master agents who collected the bets for him. He offered them a commission of 10 per cent of the bets they collected, and a further commission of 5 per cent of the winnings if any of their punters struck the lottery.

Because Mogan was not computer literate, he got Rabiah to help manage his accounts on the websites, instructing her to create gambling accounts for agents and punters and issuing them to the respective individuals.

Rabiah also helped Mogan calculate the winnings and losses of the gambling accounts of the agents and punters under him on a weekly basis, as well as the total outstanding amount they had to pay Mogan.

She kept the agents, punters and Mogan updated on the winnings and losses, while Mogan collected the bet monies from his agents and punters either personally or with the help of Rabiah or his son-in-law Dinesh Rajantheran.

Rabiah would keep the bet monies in her home, including Mogan’s profits from the illegal enterprise.

On each draw day between 2018 and end-March 2020, Mogan and his agents collected between S$6,000 and S$10,000 worth of 4D bets through the illegal websites.

This meant that he collected between S$18,000 and S$30,000 in 4D bets per week, for a total of at least S$1.08 million to S$1.8 million in 4D bets over 15 months.

Mogan earned a commission of 10 per cent on the illegal bets placed by the agents and punters under him. As a shareholder, he also earned a share of the profits made by each of the five websites.

The profits he received depended on the value of bets collected by each shareholder and the agents under them, measured against the total value of bets collected for any draw.

For example, if Mogan and his agents collected S$10,000 worth of bets and another shareholder collected S$20,000, Mogan would receive one-third of the profits while the other shareholder would receive two-thirds.

On average, Mogan made a profit of about S$5,000 per week from the bets collected on the websites.

Between Feb 2, 2015, and Sep 2, 2020, excluding the COVID-19 “circuit breaker” period in 2020 when Singapore Pools suspended draws, Mogan earned an estimated total profit of about S$1.28 million from the bets collected through the websites.

Mogan also recruited others to join the syndicate, to widen the pool of punters and increase the revenue earned. He hired his friends David Dharesh Taufiq and Mahendran Nithia Annathan in 2018.

In mid-2018, he also recruited his son-in-law Dinesh, who became an agent collecting bets for two of the illegal gambling websites and later became a master agent with 10 punters under him.

Mogan also instigated Rabiah to pay off her hire-purchase loan for a BMW 428i Gran Coupe car using the bet monies that agents and punters transferred into her bank account.

Rabiah did so using S$118,084 worth of bet monies over 60 instalment payments to make partial payment for the S$256,900-priced car.

On Sep 7, 2020, a party of officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) acted on information the police had received and arrested Mogan and Rabiah at a void deck in Bedok.

Seven other people in the syndicate with the couple were also arrested at that time.

The seven were: Dinesh, 37; David Dharesh Taufiq, 33; Sean Lavin Pasion Emile, 26; Aw-Yeong Kien Hsin, 49; Sharavanan Joseph Vadivel, 48; Heng Aik Peng Bernard, 39; and Tan Yong Huat, who has since died.

The prosecutor sought a total of 46 to 53 months’ jail for Mogan, along with a fine of S$129,000, saying Mogan was the leader of the syndicate with direct overview and control.

She said there must be an increase in his sentence compared with Rabiah, who was sentenced to 31 months’ jail and a fine of S$192,000 on Monday.

However, the judge took issue with some of her submissions and adjourned sentencing to Sep 10 for the issues to be rectified.

Mogan is represented by Mr Ramesh Tiwary, who has yet to make oral submissions on sentencing or mitigation.