Alleged bookie Dan Tan's ex-wife on trial for lying to CPIB

AFTER graft officers took alleged match-fixing kingpin Dan Tan Seet Eng from his home to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) office in June three years ago, his wife called his accomplice, Eric Ding Si Yang, for advice about two laptops.

Now Guan Enmei, 41, is on trial for knowingly giving false information about these laptops to a senior special investigator of the CPIB.

Guan, a Singaporean from China who is now divorced from Tan, allegedly told the investigator that she had left her house with only a handbag when asked to report to the CPIB office on June 6, 2013.

She denied taking with her a paper bag containing two laptops, a denial which she knew was false, according to the charge.

Testifying on the first day of Guan's two-day trial yesterday, Ding said Guan had called him some time in 2013 after her husband was being investigated for graft, asking what she should do with the laptops.

Read also: Dan Tan's 3rd ex-wife: Our problem was not match fixing

When asked by the prosecution why Guan had called him, Ding - who is serving a six-year jail term for bribing three Lebanese football officials with prostitutes for fixing future matches, among other offences - said it could be that he and Tan had used the same network of encrypted phones and laptops to communicate.

Tan, described as "the leader of the world's most notorious match-fixing syndicate", is being detained without trial under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act.

The prosecution said that on June 6, Tan was asked to report to the CPIB office. Before he left home, he told Guan to place two laptops from the study in a bag and hand it back to him after he was released.

That afternoon, Guan was told to report to the CPIB. As her usual limousine driver Alan Chen De Zhan was unable to pick her up then, he arranged for another driver, Akbar Abdul Ali, to do so.

When Mr Akbar arrived at her home, Guan placed a white Dior paper bag in the back seat of the car before sitting in the front passenger seat.

On arriving at the CPIB carpark, Guan met Mr Chen and asked him to safekeep the bag for her until she came out of the building. He waited her at a nearby coffee shop, where graft investigators later seized the bag and two laptops.

When questioned about the laptops, Guan insisted that she did not know anything.

Mr Chen testified in court yesterday that Guan had asked him to pick up a white paper bag from Mr Akbar's car, which he kept for her while waiting to send her home.

He said the bag was heavy and he saw a laptop in it.

If found guilty of knowingly giving false information to a graft investigator, Guan faces a fine of up to $10,000 and up to one year in jail.

She will take the stand today.

chiaytr@sph.com.sg

Get MyPaper for more stories.