Jailed: Man who threatened to leak businessman's sex videos
SINGAPORE — A 24-year-old man who took part in a plan to extort money from a married businessman by threatening to release videos of him having sex with another man was on Tuesday (27 July) jailed for three years and 10 months.
Tan Yong Jian pleaded guilty at the State Courts to three charges – one for criminal intimidation via anonymous communication, and two for drug possession and consumption.
The court heard that in late-2019, Tan's accomplice, who was an employee of the victim, secretly installed a CCTV camera in the victim's home.
The employee, whose name was redacted from court documents to protect the victim's identity, left the camera in the house for about three weeks, during which time he recorded the victim having sex with another man in the room on at least five occasions.
On 9 March last year, the employee showed Tan and another accomplice, Daryn Ho Yong Jian, 23, the videos he recorded.
"The accused persons were aware that the victim was a person of means and decided to use the videos to extort money from the victim," said Deputy Public Prosecutor Zhou Yang.
The trio agreed to split the cash they would receive, with the employee taking half of it, and Tan and Ho splitting the rest equally.
At about 7.10pm that day, Tan sent three of the videos to the victim and said, "I have some videos and pictures at my disposal that I think will be of interest to you.”
At about 9.35pm, Tan sent another message saying, "I guess these videos doesn’t interest you as much as I thought it would. Guess I’ll just share it? (sic)”
The victim didn't reply to the messages and made a police report the next morning, suspecting that the videos had been recorded by one of his personal assistants who had access to his home.
Two days later, on 12 March at about 7.15pm, Tan texted the victim, "60k for these videos and pictures to be deleted and not leaked. Let me know your decision.”
The victim replied about an hour later, counter proposing a sum of $50,000. The perpetrators agreed and Tan told the victim that he wanted the sum in cash the next day.
At about 9.25am the next morning, Tan told the victim, "Morning. I would like to tell you that I need that amount by today” and “I understand that you’re working but I believe the banks are open and I know you want all this to be ridden and done with so let’s settle it by tonight.”
Policemen arrested the three perpetrators the same day and they were charged in court the next day.
But out on bail, Tan tried to extort $50,000 from the victim once more via another accomplice, using the same modus operandi of threatening to disseminate the videos if the money was not handed over.
When policemen arrested Tan at his home in September last year, they found drug taking utensils and methamphetamine. His urine also tested positive for the drug. He had previously been given reformative training for taking the same drug.
The maximum penalty for criminal intimidation is up to two years' jail and a fine. If the offence is committed anonymously, the culprit faces an additional jail term of up to two years.
The cases for Ho and the employee are pending before the court.
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