Man pleads guilty to hiring hitman on Dark Web to kill former mistress' new boyfriend
Photo illustration of a man in handcuffs. (Photo: Jeremy Long)
SINGAPORE: A married man who had an affair with a colleague became jealous after she moved on from him, and decided to hire a hitman to kill her new boyfriend.
Singaporean Allen Vincent Hui Kim Seng, 47, admitted to ordering a hit worth a few thousand US dollars on the 30-year-old Singaporean man through the Dark Web – websites on encrypted networks that cannot be found by using traditional search engines or browsers.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of intentionally abetting murder, with another charge of criminal intimidation taken into consideration.
The court heard that Hui, then a risk management executive who was married with a daughter, had started an affair with a 30-year-old Malaysian woman he was working with in April 2016.
The woman knew that Hui was married, but he assured her that he was planning to leave his wife. Even after Hui left the company in November 2016, they continued seeing each other.
However, the mistress realised that Hui had no intention to leave his wife and started distancing herself from him, eventually ending the relationship in February 2018.
They remained on talking terms and Hui continued to pursue her, buying gifts for her and paying for half the rental of a flat she stayed in that was meant to be their shared home.
EX-GIRLFRIEND FINDS NEW FLAME
The mistress started a new job and met her new boyfriend in April 2018. She mentioned this casually to Hui, who was jealous and stalked her to find out who her new man was.
He monitored her social media accounts, checking whose Instagram posts she had liked and taking a screenshot of her new boyfriend.
Hui then Googled "hitmen for hire" and downloaded a browser to access the Dark Web. He found a website claiming to provide hitmen services including murder.
He initially ordered a hit to cut off the new boyfriend's right hand, before asking for acid to be poured on his face, and finally asking for the man to be killed.
The murder was to look like a staged car accident that was to take place on May 22 last year, according to Hui's instructions.
However, days before this on May 12 last year, a CBS journalist informed the Singapore embassy in Washington DC of a hit ordered against a Singaporean that was scheduled to be carried out on May 22, 2018.
Court documents did not state how the journalist came to know this information.
The embassy alerted the Singapore Police Force and investigations confirmed that Hui had ordered the hit.
Hui, who is still married, was arrested by police on May 17, 2018. He was ordered to cancel the hit and withdraw all bitcoins he had uploaded to his account on the website for payment.
The judge adjourned mitigation and sentencing to September.
