Kho Bin Kai, the first ex-husband of billionaire heiress Kim Lim, has been given jail time and a fine for his involvement in illegal gambling activities.
The former couple divorced in 2020 after three years of marriage and have a five-year-old son together.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
The five charges that Kho pleaded to included managing remote gambling and purchasing luxury watches with criminal proceeds.
As the master agent for a gambling website, he could receive around S$30,000 to S$40,000 a month. He also made thousands more from other sites.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Kho’s involvement in illegal gambling started in 2012 when he became an agent for unlawful football betting.
This purportedly netted the 32-year-old Singaporean around S$2,000 to S$5,000 a month.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao
Four years later, a Malaysian man known only as “Ah Leong” introduced Kho to his 4D and TOTO ‘business’.
The Straits Times (ST) reported that Kho then switched to being an agent for an illegal gambling website in April 2017.
On average, he could earn around S$30,000 to S$40,000 a month. This was from taking a 10% commission from all the bets placed and 90% to 95% of the prize pool, Lianhe Zaobao noted.
However, there were times when he earned nothing at all.
Additionally, Kho was allegedly in control of other illegal gambling website accounts and had other agents under him.
One of the websites made him roughly S$3,000 to S$4,000 a month, while he got about S$2,000 to S$3,000 from another.
Kho would reportedly use the proceeds from his criminal enterprise to add to his luxury timepiece collection.
In 2016, he spent S$32,000 on an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore watch. Another S$5,000 went towards making a partial payment for a S$21,000 diamond-encrusted Rolex the previous year.
Source: Watch Collecting, for illustration purposes only
Kho’s misdeeds came to light following a raid on his home in an islandwide crackdown on illegal online gambling in July 2019.
Police arrested 35 other people in the operation and seized multiple items from Kho, including four Rolex watches, two mobile phones, a laptop, and his vehicle.
In court, Kho’s lawyers argued that this was his first brush with the law and that he has “put in sincere efforts at rehabilitation and promises never to engage in remote gambling again”.
On Tuesday (9 May), a judge sentenced him to two years and 10 months in jail in addition to a fine of S$40,000.
Kho had earlier pleaded guilty to five charges, including three under the Remote Gambling Act. Eight other charges were also considered in his sentencing.
His bail was set at S$50,000 and he should surrender himself at the State Courts on 23 May.
Meanwhile, Ms Lim seemed completely unbothered by the news as she continued to update social media with her usual glamorous photos, even promoting her new TikTok account.
Source: @kimlimhl on Instagram
Kho is the first husband of Ms Lim, whose father is billionaire tycoon Peter Lim.
After her split from Kho, Ms Lim married her second husband, Leslie Leow, but ended the relationship after two months allegedly due to frequent quarrels.
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Featured image adapted from Lianhe Zaobao and Shin Min Daily News.
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