SINGAPORE, Sept 15 — Six Malaysians have been jailed for their roles in a daring 2024 robbery at a good-class bungalow in King Albert Park, where masked men tied up 11 people during a high-stakes poker game and stole about S$4.9 million, The Straits Times reported.
The six, who each pleaded guilty to armed gang robbery and money laundering, were sentenced yesterday. The seventh suspect, Muhammad Yusuf Kassim, 33, remains at large and is believed to be in Thailand.
The two masterminds, Wong Chi San, 35, and Goh Boon Tong, 30, were each sentenced to 12 years and 11 months’ jail, 24 strokes of the cane and a S$4,000 fine yesterday.
Mohd Hamidon Ahmed, 49, who recruited men to provide additional muscle, was sentenced to 10½ years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane.
According to the English daily, two of his recruits, Kartik Palaniappan, 34, and Muhammad Tauffiq Ahmad Fauzi, 34, were each jailed seven years and eight months and ordered to receive 24 strokes of the cane.
Mohd Hashim Ismail, 51, was sentenced to eight years and eight months’ jail and cannot be caned because he is above 50.
The Straits Times reported that the robbery took place in the early hours of April 18, 2024, after Wong and Goh learnt about poker games at the house, where stakes could reach several hundred thousand dollars and payments were made in cryptocurrency.
The pair later recruited Hamidon, who brought four men to Singapore. The group entered through an unlocked gate after 2am, with three men carrying machetes and two armed with baseball bats.
The robbers tied up the 11 people inside, demanded that the host transfer cryptocurrency to a wallet controlled by Wong, and took cash, luxury watches and money from a safe.
They then fled Singapore through separate checkpoints, with Wong and Goh using Tuas and the others using Woodlands.
Prosecutors said the robbery was Singapore’s highest-value heist since the 1970s after accounting for inflation. Police have recovered only cryptocurrency worth about S$1.69 million from the S$4.9 million stolen.