57 year old Seet Seo Boon, who was the leader of an illegal online gambling syndicate worth almost $100 million was slapped with a fine of $620,000 and given a jail term of nine years, eight months and two weeks today (3 Mar).
In lieu of the fine amount, he would have to serve an additional 310 days extra in jail.
He is currently out on a bail amount of $75,000 and will begin his sentence on 11 Apr 2022.
Gambling Ring operations
Seet first started the whole operation with two of his brothers, 64 year old Seet Seow Huat and 72 year old Seet Sian Thiam.
Weekly revenues collected by the syndicate amounted to almost $1 million.
The syndicate collected mostly bets made on 4D and Toto by punters through agents and runners using two websites which generated revenue amount of almost $100 million before it was crippled by the Police.
Syndicate members were also urged to recruit more members for the revenue to increase.
Members were interviewed prior to joining the syndicate as they wanted to avoid detection from the Police.
Prior to staring the operations, the Seet brothers collected bets for unknown persons.
Seet learnt of a more efficient betting system from Hong Kong in 2013 and employed the system into the syndicate via a second remote based gambling website.
Profits
From the profits made by the syndicate, Seet earned about $19,000 monthly and he used about $150,000 to pay off a mortgage on a three room condo unit in River Valley.
$14,000 a month was made from his first website from 2011 to 2016 November when he was arrested.
$5,000 a month was made from his second website from 2013 to the day of his arrest.
Arrested
Police Officers visited Seet’s residence upon receiving a tip off on 27 Nov 2016 and were refused entry by Seet, forcing them to enter by force.
Evidence such as electronic devices as well as four Rolex watches were seized by the officers.
11 bank accounts which Seet used to manage the syndicate’s activities were discovered as well.
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