The Best I Could (27 page)

Ah Long San was released in May 2008 and he visited me with his second wife. He instructed me to attend to some of his property matters. I introduced him to Sharon Tan, a legal assistant from the conveyancing department. She told me jokingly that he was her passport to the underworld!

Pal was a young boy who delivered milk to my temple.
Pal
is the Tamil word for ‘milk’ and he got his nickname delivering milk in the Sembawang neighbourhood. When he became my client sometime in the 1990s, he confessed to me that he used to drink a little of the milk he was delivering to the temple. According to him, the Gods wouldn’t mind missing a bit of milk. It made sense to me and it also revealed a little of his character.

Every Sunday after lunch, some of my friends and I would gather at the house of our friend, Dasa. It was a huge colonial bungalow which Dasa rented to house his dogs. It was an ideal place for poker games, especially on Sunday afternoons, and parties. We didn’t play for big stakes and most times the winner only received IOUs which nobody cashed. We played for the fun of it and whoever won would pay for dinner that could cost more than the winnings. One of the players was my good friend and schoolmate Saivy. He was also known as Duck Legs because of his gait. An excellent flutist and a fantastic musician, he led the Indian band which provided music for Tamil talentime contests that were telecast on TV. Saivy died of a heart attack in May 1996 when I was away in Manila. I was not able to catch a flight back to Singapore to attend his funeral and spent a miserable day in my hotel reminiscing about him.

One Sunday, Saivy was late and we started the poker game without him. When he turned up, he looked worried and asked me to step outside for a chat. In the garden, he told me that his good friend and bookie, Pal, had been arrested by the CPIB. He also told me that he suspected Pal of fixing Malaysia Cup soccer matches. I asked him what he wanted me to do and he said that I should act for Pal and do the best for him. I had heard rumours about Pal which I didn’t like and I told Saivy that he should perhaps look for another lawyer. Saivy was quiet for some time. He finally looked at me and said that as we have been friends for a long while, he was asking a favour of me and I should not refuse. Since it meant so much to Saivy, I decided to help.

The next day I called the CPIB and spoke to an officer, Mohammed Ali, who I knew from our university days. I said I was acting for Pal and asked if I could see him. Ali told me to come to his office for a chat. When we met, he told me that Pal was in a serious situation. The authorities had evidence of Pal fixing matches and betting millions of dollars on them. According to Ali, Pal could be locked away for a long time. Ali also told me that the director of the CPIB, Chua Cher Yak, wanted to see me. I knew Chua from my Raffles Institution days. He played soccer and I believed he played for the school. He was a hardworking student though not a good soccer player.

Ali escorted me to the director’s room and left. Also in the room was the deputy director, Tan Ah Leck, with whom I had had several encounters. Ah Leck offered me coffee whilst I was chatting with the director about old times. After sipping the coffee (I had definitely tasted better), I asked the director what he wanted. He was frank and said that the choice was mine. He could send Pal away for a long spell in prison or I could save him. I asked him how I could help Pal and he said that if my client became a witness for the prosecution, he would consider reducing the number of charges against him.

I asked for permission to see Pal which was granted. We spoke for a long time and he agreed to be a prosecution witness. He was released with an order to return the next day. Pal met up with his associates to discuss the development and confirmed with me that he was prepared to be a prosecution witness. He added that he was leaving the negotiations to me and he would agree to whatever terms I negotiated with the CPIB. He was under the impression that he would still be charged but with fewer charges. The next day, I struck a bargain with the director and Ah Leck. There would be no charges against Pal if he testified against certain players and bookies.

An application was made before the hearing started to keep Pal’s name and photograph out of the press for security reasons. The application was granted. Pal first testified against two persons: one Ong, an insurance broker and bookie, and one Kannan, a former Malaysia Cup player. Both were convicted and sent to jail. At one stage, the lawyer for Kannan asked Pal how he could have trusted Kannan with thousands of dollars. Pal answered that in this business, trust was the only way to go. When the lawyer asked Pal what would happen if he was cheated, the answer was that it would be the last time that that man would cheat him. It was a double-edged answer. Everybody in court understood its meaning and knew that Pal was a dangerous person. He next testified against Abbas Saad, a well-known player from Australia. Abbas was convicted, fined $50,000 and banned from playing soccer for life. Another player, Michael Vanna, was arrested and charged for accepting money from Pal to fix a match. Bail for Vanna was set at $500,000 but one of Pal’s associates bailed him out and he absconded—$500,000 was nothing to the bookies.

After the saga was over in Singapore, the Malaysian police sent out a warrant for Pal’s arrest and he was taken away to Malaysia. I drove to Kuala Lumpur to engage a lawyer for him and after many days in detention and after thousands of dollars had changed hands, Pal was charged in Penang for a minor offence. He pleaded guilty and was fined RM5,000 which he paid. He returned to Singapore. However, the matter didn’t end there.

After Singapore pulled out of the Malaysia Cup in 1995 and started its own S-League, Pal’s ugly head surfaced again. He tried to bribe players again and this time, when he was arrested, there was no bargaining. The director of the CPIB was furious and in the trial that followed, Pal and two players were convicted and sent to jail. In prison, Pal bribed a jail warden to get him a mobile phone which he used to place bets and contact his associates. He was caught and sentenced to a few more years in prison. The warden was jailed. If you ask me, Pal deserved it though I put up a mitigation for him.

You may wonder what made him so successful in fixing the Malaysia Cup matches. Every state in Malaysia had Indian players and Pal, as an Indian, used his connections to contact them. Many of the referees and linesmen were also Indian. Pal was a master in exploiting people’s weaknesses. For those who wanted women, he provided the best and for those who wanted money, he gave cash. He wined and dined the players and officials. He was a generous host who could also be ruthless to people who played him out.

There was, however, a kinder side to Pal. He was known to help many people in Sembawang, especially those who needed money for hospitalisation, wedding and funeral expenses. But whatever money he made in the Malaysia Cup days (and that ran into the millions), he lost by gambling on the English Premier League matches. Somehow he had the impression that he was a genius in forecasting the outcome of football matches. A fool and his money are soon parted and I believe Pal is a pauper now. He still owes me money in fees.

Ah Long San was also a loan shark and bookie, and I couldn’t help comparing the two of them. Both could be ruthless and kind at the same time. But while Ah Long San had the foresight to invest in properties and other business ventures, Pal was reckless, over-confident and had the misguided belief that he was a genius. He lost millions of dollars in betting and I still have the cheques he gave me which bounced. He avoids me nowadays, I suppose he is ashamed to face me. On the other hand, Ah Long San and I meet often and still maintain our friendship.

When I first started my practice in Winchester House, I handled a variety of cases. Quite a number of them were cheating cases. My office was quite crummy at the time. One day sometime in the late 1970s, a man sporting a crew cut entered the office looking very agitated. He was about 1.5 m tall and weighed about 50 kg. He told the receptionist he wanted to see me very urgently and proceeded to enter my room. I asked him what his problem was.

“I’m going to be charged for cheating.”

“Yes, cheating whom?” I asked.

“Cheating quite a lot of shopkeepers.”

“And where are these shopkeepers?”

“They’re all around Chinatown, near Smith Street. They deal in sharks’ fins, amongst other Chinese delicacies.”

“Alright. Who recommended you to me?” He gave the name of his former lawyer who I knew. “Why don’t you use him because he handles crime cases and he has acted for you. Why are you not using him again?”

“Well, now that I have no more money, he has no more time for me. He also told me that you normally help people out. I’ll be very grateful if you can help me.”

I smiled to myself. Even at that early stage in my practice, I had a reputation for taking on hopeless cases or cases in which people didn’t have money to pay my fees. I was curious. Because of his size and appearance, I wondered what sort of problem Johnny Tan was in. “Tell me, what is your problem?” I asked.

“It’s a very serious one. If you want to know how I started my job (as he called it) as a conman, I will have to start from the beginning.”

“Alright, tell me.”

“Well, I was doing some sales at one time. I couldn’t make money and I got into this bad habit of gambling. I needed money when I lost and had to borrow from loan sharks who would come after me when I couldn’t pay them back. So I cooked up an idea to get some money. I decided to get a fire safety certificate that allowed me to inspect shops in Chinatown to see if they were adequately fitted with fire safety equipment, like extinguishers. I bribed someone in a certain department and got the certificate. I went around checking shops and telling the shopkeepers that their shops were a fire hazard as they were not well equipped. I told them they had to get a better type of fire extinguisher and that I would return in a week’s time to check, and if I find no improvement, I would have to summon them to court. I also told them where to get the proper fire extinguishers.”

In the meantime, according to Johnny, he set up a company selling fire extinguishers. Because of his earlier recommendation, there was a big rush of people buying fire extinguishers from his company. These people did not realise that the company was owned by Johnny Tan. He raised his prices but people still bought from him. He made quite a tidy profit. The other companies selling fire extinguishers were curious to know how Johnny, who could not read or write English properly, could be certified as a safety officer. They reported the matter to the CPIB.

Johnny was taken in by the CPIB and interrogated for a day. He refused to say how he got the certificate. When he was released, he contacted the people who issued the certificate and threatened them. “I will not be able to take any more torture from CPIB. You have to do something about it otherwise I may have to reveal your names.” Johnny told me that the people who gave him the certificate found a scapegoat in someone who was going to be sacked over a disciplinary matter, and they managed to persuade that person to take the rap. The next time the CPIB caught up with Johnny, he revealed the man’s name. When the man was pulled up by the CPIB, he accepted responsibility by saying he had taken money from Johnny in exchange for the certificate. He was subsequently charged in court and pleaded guilty. According to Johnny, he paid the man’s legal fees and the fine. Johnny also gave the man a bonus and the whole matter was settled.

From these episodes, Johnny found that it was quite easy to make money by tricking people. Whenever he got into trouble, especially over his gambling debts, he would think of new ways to deceive people. The next time he got into trouble, he was caught impersonating an income tax officer.

One day, Johnny took a friend to a shop which he knew was doing very well. To the shopkeeper, he identified himself as an income tax officer, showed him a card and introduced his friend as his subordinate. He then screamed at the shopkeeper: “How long do you think you can keep cheating the government?” Johnny then turned around abruptly, looked at his ‘subordinate’ and ordered: “You stand here and guard the books while I go and call for transport to come.”

You must remember that in those days, there were no mobile phones. When Johnny went out to make his phone call, his accomplice told the rattled shopkeeper, “My boss is actually quite a kind man but he lost a lot of money gambling at the racecourse last weekend. That’s why he’s in a bad mood. Actually, if you help him, this matter can be easily settled.”

The shopkeeper replied, “Sure, sure, sure. I’d like to settle it. How much can I offer? Can I talk?”

Johnny’s friend said, “Well, when my boss comes back, I’ll put in a good word for you.”

Five minutes later, when Johnny walked in, he said to Johnny, “Sir, this shopkeeper understands the situation. He doesn’t want to go to court. He doesn’t want to be charged. Can you help him?”

Johnny replied, “Oh, I see. So you know you’ve done wrong?”

The shopkeeper said, “Yes.”

They went into a room to negotiate a deal. Johnny hit his first shopkeeper for a very large sum. “I want $200,000. I assure you that for the next two to three years you don’t have to worry about any investigation into your company.” The shopkeeper then took them to the bank in his Mercedes Benz, withdrew $200,000 in cash and gave the money to Johnny. After that, he drove them back to Johnny’s ‘office’ in Fullerton Building; at that time, the Income Tax department was located in Fullerton Building which also housed the General Post Office. Johnny waved at the shopkeeper, went up the steps as if he was going back to work. After 10 minutes he came back out. He gave his partner in crime $2,000, which he seemed happy with, and pocketed the rest.

Johnny played this trick on many shopkeepers and was successful. All of them forked out equally large amounts. It was a scam that was going very well for Johnny but the law finally caught up with him. When the real income tax officers swooped on a shop which Johnny had ‘raided’ the previous day, the exasperated shopkeeper said, “What the hell are you trying to do? I just gave money to your senior officer, why are you coming back again? I don’t have that sort of money to pay you all every day.”