24-year-old man jailed over bid to extort S$50,000 from businessman using secretly filmed sex tapes

• Daryn Ho Yong Jian, 24, tried to extort S$50,000 from a married businessman with two co-conspirators
• One of the trio had placed a secret camera in the businessman’s home
• The camera filmed him engaging in sexual activity with another man several times
• Ho was sentenced to 18 months’ jail on Friday

SINGAPORE — One of three friends who tried to extort S$50,000 from a married businessman using compromising sex videos of him taken in secret was jailed for 18 months on Friday (Nov 19). The other two are already serving jail terms.

Daryn Ho Yong Jian, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal intimidation.

The videos used in the extortion attempt were from a surveillance camera that one of the trio had secretly installed on top of a bookshelf in the businessman’s home in late 2019.

The 53-year-old businessman and the man who organised the filming — identified in court documents as B2 — cannot be named due to a court order protecting the identity of the businessman. The order also bars the reporting of the relationship between the two.

The camera, which would alert B2 whenever someone was in the room, was left in the victim’s home for about three weeks. During that time, the businessman engaged in sexual activity with another man on at least five different occasions.

On Friday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Zhou Yang refuted a submission by Ho’s lawyer that his client was “merely tagging along with his friends’ plan so that he could make easy money”.

Asking for 18 to 22 months’ jail, DPP Zhou argued that Ho played an active role in the extortion attempt, having participated in plotting the crime with B2 and Tan Yong Jian, 24.

Ho was also part of a chat group called “Heist” on messaging platform Telegram with the two, which they used to discuss their illicit plans, the prosecutor said.

Defence lawyer Raj Mannar told the court that Ho had recently completed his O-Level examinations as a private candidate and had found a job in a car workshop.

“Daryn hopes that he can have a second chance in life,” the lawyer from law firm CHP Law said.

District Judge Ng Peng Hong noted that Ho played a lesser role in the extortion attempt than B2 and Tan, but he said: “Clearly, from what I obtain from the facts, you are opportunistic.”

He allowed Ho to start his jail term from Dec 9 after Mr Mannar told the court that Ho wishes to spend some time with his parents, who are divorced and live separately.

The other two conspirators, B2 and Tan, earlier pleaded guilty to their crimes and each of them was sentenced to 22 months’ jail. B2 was handed an extra S$3,500 fine for a breach of Covid-19 regulations.

ABOUT THE CASE

On March 9 last year at Ho’s house, the trio began talking about the victim.

They decided to extort the businessman when B2 showed the others the videos that he had taken.

They agreed that B2 would receive half of the sum for taking the videos, while Tan and Ho would get a quarter each.

B2 then sent the videos and the victim’s contact number to Tan and Ho.

B2 and Ho later deleted the videos to avoid detection but Tan did not.

The trio then obtained an unregistered SIM card for a mobile phone and used it to contact the victim. They set up a chat group on Telegram to discuss their plans.

Later that day, Tan inserted the SIM card into his phone and sent the victim three of the videos.

He wrote: “Hi (victim’s name), I have some videos and pictures at my disposal that I think will be of interest to you.”

When the victim did not respond, Tan sent him another message two hours later and threatened to share the videos.

The victim then filed a police report the next day. He continued ignoring Tan’s messages, so the trio decided to demand S$60,000 from him on March 12 last year.

He replied shortly after, saying that what they were doing “is so wrong, whoever you are” but that he was prepared to work with them.

He added that S$60,000 was too much because his businesses were bleeding due to the pandemic, but that he could hand over S$50,000 if given some time.

The trio accepted the offer. Tan then gave the victim his word that he would not circulate the videos if the victim handed over the cash the next day.

The next day, the police arrested Tan, Ho and B2.

Tan was released on bail but tried to extort the victim again through another man named Mahadevan Edwyn.

Edwyn, 28, pleaded guilty on Oct 18 and a further hearing is pending.

For criminal intimidation by anonymous communication, Ho could have been jailed for up to four years or fined, or both