It was previously reported that Singapore veteran comedian Henry Thia is being investigated by the Singapore Police Force for his alleged involvement in an advertisement promoting an illegal gambling platform.
Thia’s management agency King Kong Media Production, helmed by fellow artiste and comedian Mark Lee, said they were alerted to the video and that Thia is assisting the police with their investigations.
King Kong Media Production said in another statement yesterday that This was invited to shoot an advertisement in 2022 for a Malaysian live broadcasting platform.
They said that they had asked the advertising agency involved to make sure that nothing illegal would be in the ad, including illegal gambling.
The contract that they signed also stated that there would be nothing illegal in the video.
Thia then did the video shoot in Malaysia while being accompanied by staff during the filming and they saw nothing amiss during the shoot.
The advertising agency then sent Kong Kong Media Production a video of the shoot, which the latter understood to be the full video of the ad.
It was shot based on a storyboard that had been approved and based on their understanding, the video was only meant to promote the live broadcasting platform, and they gave the video the go-ahead.
However, the video ad that was posted online was different from the one that King King approved; it had been edited to include the content that promoted illegal gambling in the last 10 seconds of the video.
King Kong added that they have since engaged a lawyer in Malaysia and will be pursuing legal action against the advertising company and the live broadcasting platform.
At the time of writing, both Thia and King Kong Media Production are assisting the police with their investigations.