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SINGAPORE: A former finswimming coach at the Singapore Underwater Federation (SUF) was sentenced to one week’s jail on Monday (Sep 14) for conspiring with his vice-president and head coach to falsify competition results to secure athletes’ selection into the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games).<\/p>\n
Muhammad Faiz Suhaimi, a 33-year-old Singaporean, had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to make a false electronic record to commit fraud. Two other charges were considered in sentencing.<\/p>\n
His alleged co-conspirators are Ho Ho Huat, 56, then the vice-president of sports and head coach of finswimming at SUF, and 36-year-old Gary Lee Quan Hua, then an assistant finswimming coach at SUF.<\/p>\n
The falsified documents resulted in six additional athletes being selected to represent Singapore in finswimming at the 2023 SEA Games, including Ho’s daughter.<\/p>\n
SUF is the national sports association responsible for promoting underwater and aquatic sports in Singapore.<\/p>\n
This includes finswimming, where athletes compete using monofins resembling fish tails or bifins as used by scuba dinners.<\/p>\n
At the time of the offences, the 32nd SEA Games were due to be held in Cambodia in May 2023.<\/p>\n
The Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) put in place a selection process and set up a selection committee to determine the athletes to represent Singapore at the games.<\/p>\n
During the selection process in December 2022, Ho received a handbook setting out featured sporting events and realised that some finswimming events had been removed.<\/p>\n
As a result, some athletes were no longer eligible for selection.<\/p>\n
Ho allegedly wanted to nominate more finswimming athletes through the appeal process, which would take place sometime in February 2023 and required a qualifying result in a sanctioned competition for the athletes he wished to nominate.<\/p>\n
Ho managed to send five Singaporean athletes for the first Malaysian Fin Swimming Championship in Malaysia in January 2023, although it was meant only for Malaysian swimmers.<\/p>\n
No official result sheet was issued to the five male athletes.<\/p>\n
After this, Ho allegedly raised the idea of falsifying the Malaysian Championship results with Faiz and Lee.<\/p>\n
They hesitated but Ho was more senior than them and they were afraid to question him, court documents said.<\/p>\n
They discussed the qualifying timings, the athletes to nominate and the events, among other things.<\/p>\n
Faiz then created a false electronic record of four events at the Malaysian Championship, stating that female athletes had taken part even though only male athletes had gone.<\/p>\n
The false record was sent to the sports performance manager of finswimming, intending to induce SNOC to select athletes to represent Singapore in finswimming events at the SEA Games.<\/p>\n
Faiz and Ho later agreed to add the falsified results to the official result sheet of the Malaysian Championship when asked for the official results.<\/p>\n
The SNOC Appeal Committee eventually selected eight athletes to represent Singapore at the 2023 SEA Games.<\/p>\n
Of these, two had already been selected to represent Singapore for another SEA Games event, but the falsified results induced SNOC to select them for an additional event.<\/p>\n
The remaining six athletes, including Ho’s daughter, would not have been selected without the falsified results.<\/p>\n
SNOC incurred an additional expense of about S$15,700 (US$12,360) to send the six athletes to the 2023 SEA Games.<\/p>\n
Ho was removed from his position at the SUF in December 2023.<\/p>\n
After this, Faiz and Lee informed an anonymous whistleblower about the falsified finswimming results.<\/p>\n
SNOC and Sport Singapore later began investigations and a Committee of Inquiry was established to look into the matter.<\/p>\n
It found, among other things, that the results had been falsified and that Ho had played a pivotal role in the scheme.<\/p>\n
SNOC lodged a police report in March 2025.<\/p>\n
The prosecution sought a fine, noting Faiz’s voluntary disclosure and position relative to Ho.<\/p>\n
Ho and Lee have pre-trial conferences fixed for October.<\/p>\n
For conspiring to make a false electronic record to commit fraud, Faiz could have been jailed for up to four years, fined, or both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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