Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 24) — Ian Sangalang of the Magnolia Hotshots plans to file charges against a Singaporean businessman, whose court case implicated his name in an alleged game-fixing attempt during the 2018 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals.
The Hotshots big man denied knowing Koa Wei Quan, a former owner of transportation firm Koa Motor, who is reportedly facing 14 graft charges in Singapore for trying to influence the games played in the PBA and the Thailand Basketball League between April and July of 2018.
“I don’t even know him. It is not true,” Sangalang said in a report on the league’s website Monday.
“I would never trade my career and dignity for that type of thing,” he added.
Meanwhile, the PBA said it is set to investigate the allegations.
Singapore-based broadsheet The Straits Times reported that Koa — with the supposed help of former PBA player Leo Avenido and a certain Sergei Bien Orillo — allegedly offered Sangalang a $5,000 (around ₱279,000) bribe to drop Magnolia’s match against the San Miguel Beermen by nine or more points in Game 5 of the all-Filipino finals.
The Beermen won in double overtime, 108-99, to capture the title.
Aside from Sangalang, Koa allegedly offered bribes to unnamed Blackwater Elite players to fix their games against the Columbian Dyip and the Phoenix Fuel Masters.
Koa reportedly tried to influence the outcomes in the Thailand Basketball League in 2018, working with a certain Poh Wei Hao to allegedly bribe Filipino guard Almond Vosotros who was then playing for Provincial Electricity Authority.
According to The Straits Times report, Koa can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $100,000 or (around ₱4.18 million) if he is convicted.
CNN Philippines is seeking comment from others named in the report.
