One of four men accused of operating a Telegram group chat that circulated in nudes of unsuspecting Singaporean women and obscene materials was slapped yesterday with five more criminal counts related to pornography.
The administrator of the so-called SG Nasi Lemak group chat, Liong Tianwei, who’s been in custody two weeks, now faces a total of nine counts of distributing porn digitally, after the court hit him a slew of additional charges Tuesday.
The 37-year-old suspect, however, was able to walk free after posting a bond of just over S$20,000 (US$15,000). He’s scheduled to appear back in court Dec. 10, according to Asia One.
Liong is accused of sending pornographic materials on eight occasions since June through the group chat, which had swollen to more than 40,000 members before it came to light.
Earlier on Oct. 15, he was charged with conspiring to distribute obscene materials.
His three codefendants are Abdillah Sabaruddin (17), Justin Lee Han Shi (19) and Leonard Teo Min Xuan (26). The trio face two counts each. While Abdillah and Lee have been released on S$7,000 (US$5,000) bonds, Teo was not offered bail. All three are scheduled to be back in court Tuesday.
The Telegram chat went viral after several Singaporeans, including celebrities Sezairi Sezali and Dee Kosh, condemned it on Twitter. The Straits Times reported that members who wanted to join the group chat had to pay a S$30 (US$22) “entry fee.”
Nudes were not the only content the group trafficked in, apparently. Some screenshots showed members looking to trade info on illicit goods such as vaping pens and offering commercial sex services.
Telegram group with 40K+ members outed for sharing nudes of Singaporean women
Such invite-only chats on Telegram, where members go to ogle young Singaporean women, are not new. In June, a woman filed a police report against Telegram channel SG Telebabes, which had more than 2,000 members, after a friend said her photos were being shared in it, AsiaOne reported.
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Caught with their pants down: 4 men arrested over Telegram nudes chat scandal
Telegram group with 40k+ members outed for sharing nudes of Singaporean women
