24 y.o Daryn Ho Yong Jian was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment today (19 Nov) for trying to extort $50,000 off a businessman who is married with footages of him engaging in sexual activities with another man in his bedroom.
Two others involved in this extortion had already been sentenced to imprisonment previously with one of them who is known as B2 being sentenced to 22 months jail and another who is known as Tan sentenced to 22 months jail and a $3,500 fine for a separate incident.
Modus operandi
One of the three involved in the extortion had earlier placed a surveillance camera on top of a bookshelf in the home of the businessman back in 2019.
The man is known as B2 due to a court order protecting the identity of the businessman involved in the case.
Whenever someone enters the room of the businessman, the camera will notify B2.
The camera was left in the room for almost three weeks during which the businessman was filmed having sex with another man on a minimum of five occasions.
Beginning of the extortion
The three guys including Ho decided to extort the businessman during a meeting at Ho’s on 9 March 2020, after B2 had showed them the video that was filmed secretly.
They also agreed on their share of the loot if the extortion was successful, Ho and Tan were to get a quarter of the extorted amount and B2 was to get half of the amount.
The video and contact number of the businessman was sent to Tan and Ho by B2, which was deleted by all except Tan to erase the digital footprints.
An unregistered SIM card was then purchased and used to send three of the videos to the businessman with a message to the businessman greeting him and saying that they have some videos and images at their disposal which the businessman might take interest in.
The businessman however did not reply and filed a police report the following day after Tan sent him another message two hours later threatening that he would share the videos.
He continued to ignore them till 12 March 2020 when the trio asked him for $60,000 in exchange for the videos.
He told them that the things that they were doing was wrong and he could only afford $50,000 due to his business being badly hit by the pandemic and he needed time to raise the money.
The trio then agreed to settle on $50,000 and promised not to circulate the videos once they received the money the next day.
Police arrested Tan, Ho and B2 the following day.
However when Tan was released on bail, he did not let the matter go and tried to extort the businessman again through another person who is 28 y.o Mahadevan Edwyn.
Edwyn was subsequently caught and pleaded guilty on Oct 18, and has a pending hearing upcoming.
Penalties
For the offence of criminal intimidation via anonymous communication, Ho could have received up to four years imprisonment, fined or both.
Image source: unsplash.com
