\n<\/p>\n
In November 2023, Wong and Goh learned that high-stakes poker games were being held at a house in the King Albert Park area, where many landed properties and Good Class Bungalows are located.<\/p>\n
They knew someone who had taken part in the games, court documents stated.<\/p>\n
The games involved stakes of up to a few hundred thousand dollars, with payments settled using cryptocurrency, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Wong and Goh visited the house and observed that the gate was left open and the wooden door unlocked during the poker game.<\/p>\n
Several months later, in March or April 2024, Wong suggested robbing the house. But he and Goh knew they would need more people to carry out the plan.<\/p>\n
Goh approached Hamidon, whom he had met at an event where Hamidon had provided private security. Hamidon ran his own private security firm as well as debt collection services.<\/p>\n
Wong and Goh met Hamidon to discuss the operation. Hamidon was to recruit men to intimidate and subdue the victims in exchange for RM1.5 million (S$467,000), which would be split among his team.<\/p>\n
Hamidon obtained a deposit of RM10,000 before recruiting the others. He did not initially tell them the details of the operation, but they knew it involved illegal activity.<\/p>\n
Wong and Goh decided the robbers would wear black clothing, gloves and ski masks.<\/p>\n
On Apr 15, 2024, Wong drove into Singapore via Woodlands Checkpoint and checked into a hotel. However, despite a poker game ongoing at the house, Hamidon’s team was not ready and the robbery did not take place.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hamidon’s team prepared themselves with black clothing, ski masks, gloves, duct tape and cable ties.<\/p>\n
The following day, Wong and Goh drove past the house but found that no poker game was taking place. They instructed Hamidon’s team to remain in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.<\/p>\n
The next night, however, a poker game was in progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Goh and Wong instructed Hamidon to meet them at a car park in Geylang. Hamidon and his team entered Singapore through Woodlands Checkpoint in a vehicle at about 10.45pm on Apr 17.<\/p>\n
They met Wong and Goh at the car park, where they were shown photographs of the house and briefed on how to enter it. Machetes and baseball bats were placed in Hamidon’s vehicle.<\/p>\n
Before 2.05am on Apr 18, 2024, the seven men drove to the house and parked outside.<\/p>\n
Three of them were armed with machetes, while two carried baseball bats.<\/p>\n
The men entered through the unlocked gate and main door while the poker game was still taking place.<\/p>\n
Those in the house were:\u00a0<\/p>\n
The robbers first encountered Mr Hu, who had just exited the toilet near the main door. They pointed a machete at him and taped his mouth, wrists and ankles before telling him to sit in the toilet.<\/p>\n
The robbers then moved into the living room and ordered the victims to put their hands in the air, lower their heads and place their phones on a table.<\/p>\n
The victims complied. They were tied up and had their mouths taped while the robbers searched the house for valuables.<\/p>\n
Goh and Wong checked <\/strong>the victims’ phones <\/strong>for cryptocurrency applications and discovered sizable amounts of crypto in the hostess’ phone apps.<\/p>\n The group carried out crypto transfers to a wallet they controlled, emptied cash from a safe in the living room and ransacked a bedroom.<\/p>\n In total, this is what they took:<\/p>\n The seven men then left in their vehicle to another location where they split up from Goh and Wong.<\/p>\n As part of their escape plan, Wong and Goh left in their car via Tuas Checkpoint at about 2.15am while the rest left via Woodlands Checkpoint in a second vehicle at about 2.40am. They arranged to regroup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.<\/p>\n They discarded the weapons and clothing used in the robbery along the way.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the victims managed to free themselves and called the police. They sustained minor injuries from being bound.<\/p>\n Goh and Wong drove to Kuala Lumpur that same day, where Wong transferred about 1.1 million USDT to Goh as his share of the loot. USD Tether is a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar.<\/p>\n Goh and Wong managed to find buyers for their coins while in Kuala Lumpur, receiving RM1.49 million in cash for an unspecified amount of USDT.<\/p>\n They handed the cash over to Hamidon and Yusuf in Kuala Lumpur as the remaining payment to Hamidon’s team, in exchange for the stolen cash and valuables.<\/p>\n Hamidon and Yusuf gave RM100,000 to two friends in Malaysia who had helped to coordinate their activities. Hamidon kept RM445,000, while Tauffiq, Hashim and Kartik each received RM100,000. Yusuf kept RM645,000, of which his share was to be RM245,000. He claimed that he would safekeep the remainder for the team.<\/p>\n The six Malaysian robbers were arrested in Malaysia by the Royal Malaysian Police between April 2024 and November 2024. Tauffiq was nabbed before he boarded a flight to Kota Kinabalu, while Goh was arrested at the airport before getting onto a plane for Japan.<\/p>\n Of the S$4.9 million stolen, the Singapore Police Force managed to recover only about S$1.69 million. About S$3.21 million has been lost, said lead prosecutor Dillon Kok.<\/p>\n Wong and Goh also pleaded guilty to other charges involving sex work by Japanese women.<\/p>\n Mr Kok sought various jail terms for the six men, according to their relative culpability, with Wong and Goh pegged at the highest culpability.<\/p>\n The jail terms sought by the prosecution range from the lower end of seven years and eight months to 13 years and one month, with 24 strokes of the cane.<\/p>\n Wong was represented by Mr Don Tan, while Goh was represented by Mr Thangavelu, Ms Tan Jun Yin and Ms Sugenya Manogaran. Mr James Gomez Jovan Messiah defended Kartik, while Mr Ariffin Sha represented Hashim. Ms Estelle Tai represented Tauffiq, while Mr SS Dhillon acted for Hamidon.<\/p>\n Mr Gomez and Mr Ariffin said their clients received only RM100,000 each, while Ms Tai said her client was largely kept in the dark about details of the robbery. Mr Tan said no injuries were caused in the robbery.<\/p>\n Mr Dhillon said his client Hamidon was turning 50 in the coming months but did not cause any undue delay in the matter going to court in order to avoid caning.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said Hamidon had refused to prepare weapons for the robbery, instead preparing duct tape and cable ties. He was not armed at all during the robbery, said the lawyer.<\/p>\n Ms Sugenya said Goh helped authorities recover about 800,000 USDT out of the 1.1 million USDT he received, which she called a substantial recovery.<\/p>\n In sentencing, Justice Aidan Xu said this was an “audacious and well-planned” armed gang robbery “which has disrupted the peace and security”. He said the sentence must deter any future such attempts and punish those involved.<\/p>\n Justice Xu said Singapore is by and large a safe country, thanks to the efforts of law enforcement agencies and members of the public.<\/p>\n “We expect our homes to be secure … those who disturb that peace and security … can only expect to be treated severely,” he said.<\/p>\n Wong and Goh were each sentenced to 12 years and 11 months’ jail, 24 strokes of the cane and a fine of S$4,000.<\/p>\n Hamidon was given 10-and-a-half years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane, while Kartik and Tauffiq received seven years and eight months’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane.<\/p>\n Hashim, who cannot be caned due to his age, was sentenced to eight years and eight months’ jail.<\/p>\n For armed gang robbery, an offender can be jailed for between five and 20 years and is liable to 24 strokes of the cane.<\/p>\n CNA has contacted the Attorney-General\u2019s Chambers on whether any action has been taken against the victims for illegal gambling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n THE CASE In November 2023, Wong and Goh learned that high-stakes poker games were being held at a house in the King Albert Park area,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--N-DCskOv--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/tdy\/image\/2024\/05\/02\/arrests.jpg?itok=pSbXKlWt","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21183,13619,17528,17836,1428,780,2743,9602,400,787,1677,8784,22692],"class_list":["post-84963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-albert","tag-armed","tag-gang","tag-gcb","tag-heist","tag-jail","tag-king","tag-lightning","tag-men","tag-million","tag-park","tag-robbery","tag-s4-9","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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