Ex-Pro Table Tennis Player Arrested for Match Fixing
Author:
Megan Butler
Shocking news coming out of Australia at the beginning of this year involving a complex match-fixing ring with international reach. Spearheading the syndicate was a man with an illustrious career at the top of the elite table tennis circuit. The Australian national, Adam Green, was arrested in New South Wales and remains in police custody whilst officers try to uncover the extent of his match-fixing and betting activities.
The table-tennis pro circuit in Ukraine has been infiltrated by a sophisticated and organized match-fixing syndicate from Austrlia, with the ring-leader now arrested the betting industry is looking on with dismay at how the crime went undetected for so long. ?Brett_Hondow/Pixabay
The case into Mr. Green was launched this year after some bookmakers received intelligence from Ukrainian regulators that some suspicious betting activities were taking place within the table tennis markets. The games identified were all played within Ukraine and the country appears to be the main site of the syndicate’s corruption activities. The shocking revelations have caused a great deal of concern across the betting world as it self-reflects on vulnerabilities in its ecosystem.
Police moved in to arrest Adam Green in the New South Wales city of Newcastle. Early indications of the crimes committed total to a cumulative heist in excess of $500,000. The staggering sum of money is the total cash that Mr. Green was able to extract in an illegal method from the betting companies over a period of several months.
Detectives have identified nine separate properties involved and linked to the syndicate. All the properties were raided simultaneously across Australia last week as the news began to break regarding a sophisticated and large-scale match-fixing ring. In the raids, the officers involved confiscated scores of electrical equipment, documents, and approximately $12,000 in cash.
On the surface, police are accusing Mr. Green of using the individuals residing at the nine addresses identities to make bets under their names. All of the individuals involved were apparently aware of the crime that was being committed and was acting as complicit accomplices to Mr. Green. In order to evade detection for such a long time, this method of masking his identity through a pool of seemingly normal gamblers proved somewhat effective.
Police Investigating Players Being Paid to Fix Matches
A major dimension of this investigation is to uncover the extent of corruption from within the sport itself. Whilst no table tennis players have yet been arrested, there are strong indications that the elite level table tennis circuit is filled with a few rotten apples. Detectives in the case believe that Mr. Green had been sending payments directly to players who would fix games under his instruction.
The leader of the investigation is Detective Superintendent Martin Fileman from the New South Wales Police Department, and whilst speaking to the press in Australia about the latest developments in the case, he refused to rule out the possibility of more arrests being made. It appears that even if the police have identified the culprits involved in the elite end of the table tennis circuit, they are not prepared to release the name of those involved.
By leveraging his knowledge of the sport and his influence over individuals playing at the top-tier of the sport, Mr. Green was able to orchestrate a highly organized and well-structured match-fixing syndicate. A person in possession of such valuable insider information enables them to be really effective at corrupting the integrity of the sport.
The evidence against Mr. Green and his syndicate is damning. There are cash-transfer connections between the accounts of the accused man and players indicted in the match-fixing activities. Games were either purposefully thrown, or particular actions in the game were ordered in an attempt to debunk the natural course of events in the game.
Usage of Multiple Betting Accounts
In order to enable his match-fixing exploits, it was important for Mr. Green to have access to multiple betting accounts. Using the false identity of his associates, Mr. Green had access to multiple betting accounts that he used to place an enormous string of bets on the games which he knew would be corrupted.
The Police in Australia are very active in their efforts to prevent this type of crime nowadays, and they have pledged to continue their efforts to uncover crime syndicates involved in similar crimes. Other noteworthy cases include a sophisticated E-sports match-fixing case in Australia where the culprits corrupted the outcome of matches whilst placing huge sums of money on betting markets.
Mr. Green has been booked in Newcastle and has been granted conditional bail until he is due to appear in court at the end of this month. As the trial begins onlookers within the betting industry will be observing the outcome intently and trying to figure out how such an obvious scam was allowed to go on undiscovered for so long.
