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SINGAPORE \u2013 A fugitive from Singapore, who is accused of crimes including forgery in Finland, managed to avoid jail time while living in Hungary, where he served as a state witness in match-fixing trials. <\/p>\n
But Wilson Raj Perumal finally faced the music after he was convicted over human trafficking charges.<\/p>\n
His hearing in May never made headlines in Budapest, but The Straits Times learnt that the 60-year-old was sentenced to 11 years\u2019 jail.<\/p>\n
He is appealing against his conviction and sentencing.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the chief prosecutor\u2019s office of Hajdu-Bihar county in Hungary confirmed the conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to inform you that in May 2025, the Nyiregyhaza Regional Court issued a verdict convicting the defendant, which, however, has not entered into force.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prosecution took note of the verdict, but based on a defence appeal, the case will continue in second instance, and the Debrecen Regional Court of Appeal will make the decision,\u201d said the spokesperson, who did not provide dates for the appeal hearing.<\/p>\n
ST had previously reported that Wilson Raj was arrested in July 2020 after the authorities in Hungary launched a probe into his role in a human trafficking network. <\/p>\n
According to police documents, he was investigated \u201cfor the crime of human trafficking committed by assisting several persons to cross the state border for the purpose of financial gain\u201d.<\/p>\n
He has been\u00a0living in Hungary since 2012, where he provided expert testimony\u00a0for match-fixing trials there.<\/p>\n
Wilson Raj, who was once described as the king of match fixing \u2013 \u201ckelong king\u201d, in colloquial terms \u2013 was picked up on July 27, 2020, in Debrecen, Hungary\u2019s second-largest city, outside the home of his former wife Bella Istenes. <\/p>\n
Ms Istenes, 34, a Norwegian national, was arrested after returning from a trip to Sweden. She was released and is now believed to have returned to Norway with the couple\u2019s four children.<\/p>\n
Under Hungarian law, the penalty for human trafficking carries a jail term of between one and 20 years, depending on the severity of the crime and whether the people were trafficked for the purpose of sex or labour.<\/p>\n
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) had tried to have Wilson Raj extradited to Singapore but were thwarted by European laws in 2014.<\/p>\n
This was after<\/p>\n \u00a0Finnish police arrested him in 2011 over match-fixing allegations\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a>but later handed him over to the authorities in Hungary. <\/p>\n Finnish police told SPF then that they were \u201cunable to accede\u201d to the request to send the match-fixer back to Singapore, as they were \u201cbound by European Union laws to return him to Hungary\u201d.<\/p>\n He had fled to Europe after a Singapore court found him guilty of various offences, including assaulting an auxiliary police officer. He was sentenced in 2010 to five years of corrective training. <\/p>\n He left using a forged passport while out on court bail pending his appeal against the sentence.<\/p>\n In an April 2021 letter to a relative, seen by ST, Wilson Raj wrote that he was concerned with the prospect of being deported after his arrest in the human trafficking probe.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you know if I loose (sic) this case I will be deported back (to Singapore). I cannot afford to loose (sic) this case… I cannot implicate others in this case. If I do, I am implicating myself,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n He had earlier written that he needed money from his family while in a Hungarian cell waiting for his hearing. <\/p>\n \u201cI will need around 75,000 Hungarian money (S$294) to sustain myself in prison… That will last for a whole month.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as he served as a prosecution witness in Hungary, he never gave up his life of crime.<\/p>\n After fleeing Singapore, he was arrested in Finland in February 2011. An unnamed Singaporean had alerted a police station in Rovaniemi, Finland, about Wilson Raj\u2019s forged passport.<\/p>\n As the Finnish authorities dug into his background, they learnt that he was behind a spate of suspicious football results in the country.<\/p>\n Between 2008 and 2011, he bribed 11 foreign football players in the Finnish football league with \u20ac470,000 to influence the results of more than 30 matches.<\/p>\n He tried to avoid jail time by providing Finnish investigators with information that resulted in major investigations and arrests in Italy, Hungary and Singapore. <\/p>\n Among other things, he disclosed that he was part of a match-fixing syndicate with ties to Balkan shareholders, allegedly led by Singaporean businessman <\/p>\n Dan Tan Seet Eng<\/p>\n <\/a>.<\/p>\n Wilson Raj was eventually sentenced to two years\u2019 jail, but served only one year. He was then handed over to the authorities in Hungary in 2012 to help with match-fixing investigations there.<\/p>\n In Singapore, 14 of his former associates were arrested in 2013 in the wake of a crackdown on match fixing.<\/p>\n He was jailed a second time in Finland in 2014, when he was arrested for a border offence and forgery.<\/p>\n For a few years after, it appeared he had gone quiet.<\/p>\n But it later emerged that he was fixing match results again, this time in Sweden.<\/p>\n Before their arrest, Wilson Raj and Ms Istenes were in Sweden to <\/p>\n ink a deal with Swedish Division 1<\/p>\n <\/a> football team Nykoping BIS. <\/p>\n Ms Istenes was there as a representative of Sugar Computing, supposedly an e-sport programming company based in Debrecen.<\/p>\n The deal was signed on July 24, 2020, between Ms Istenes and representatives of the club. <\/p>\n Not long after, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter revealed that there had been attempts to influence matches played by the club. <\/p>\n Investigators later learnt that the parent company of Sugar Computing was Hong Kong-based firm Living 3D Holdings.<\/p>\n