Despite Interpol considering him the "boss" of the "world's largest and most aggressive match-fixing syndicate",[3] he was not arrested in Singapore until late 2013 since it lacks an extradition treaty with the European Union.
[4] In 2012, Tan and his family disconnected their phones[4] and left their former gated apartment building for an anonymous replacement[6] after its location was published by Stern and Singaporean newspapers.
[5] He has admitted to having served as the director of the Singaporean company Exclusive Sports PTE Ltd,[6] a rebranding of Football4U,[9] which was founded by convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal.
[5] Di Martino claims evidence tying Tan directly to payoffs and illegal bets, giving him a "central role" in the scandal;[6] he is known to have been in Italy in 2009 in the company of three Zingari and Choo Beng Huat, a money runner.
[16] In February 2011, Wilson Raj Perumal—the man credited with the fake Togolese team who played Bahrain in 2010—was arrested in Finland and began speaking with authorities,[17] reducing his two-year sentence to less than a year.
[14] The lack of funds, however, scuttled the deal and, shortly afterwards, his associate Joseph Tan Xie entered the Rovaniemi central police station and announced that Perumal was in Finland on a forged passport[18] under the name Rajamorgan Chelliah.
[18] (Perumal was a fugitive from Singapore, having fled a 5-year sentence in July 2010[14] after running over a policeman with his car;[1] he had also been under investigation by FIFA's head of security Chris Eaton for the prior six months.
[17]) Perumal's arrest scuttled the deal between Exclusive Sports and Tampere United; it led to a June 2011 police raid on the TamU offices[20] and the April 2013, conviction of the club's CEO and chairman for related money laundering.
[6] They met with the Global Anti-Match-fixing Taskforce[27] and examined files from Italy, Hungary, Germany, and Finland in the hope of receiving evidence that a crime had been committed in Singapore.
He claimed never to have personally bribed a player[29] but admitted providing "contributions" of up to €800,000 ($1.05m) and to losing $3 million in a failed attempt to fix a September 2001, match in Istanbul between Barcelona and Fenerbahçe.
He had bet that there would be three or fewer goals during the match; when Barcelona took an early lead, his paid employees on the field sabotaged the stadium's lights to force a cancellation.
[3] The briefing by the SPF and CPIB and press release from Interpol[27] did not officially name any of the twelve men or two women arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act and involvement in "organised crime activities", but mentioned an unspecified "ringleader" who was refused bail.
[35] Acquaintances speaking to The Straits Times admit he may have purchased information on fixed games from Perumal but argue that his withdrawal of funds from Exclusive Sports accounts for his "grudge".
[4] The BBC reports that a "source close to the investigation" admits that there is not currently enough evidence to try Tan in Singapore, particularly since the two members of the syndicate whose testimony was responsible for his arrest refuse to testify in open court.