- 6/23/2025
Moses Swaibu is a former professional footballer, playing as a defender for clubs such as Crystal Palace and Lincoln City in the mid-2000s. In 2014, after a National Crime Agency investigation into match fixing in the lower leagues of UK soccer, Swaibu was charged with conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Swaibu describes how money was handed over and laundered. He details how bets were placed, how syndicates worked, and what the hierarchy was. He details Russian, Chinese, and Singaporean match-fixing teams and how they recruited UK soccer players.
Since his release, Swaibu has become an advocate against match-fixing, collaborating with The Football Association to warn of the dangers of bribery. He is the founder of GameChanger360, an organization that coaches and advises on integrity in sport.
In 2024, Swaibu appeared in an eight-part BBC podcast about his story, "Confessions of a Match Fixer." He is the author of "Fixed: My Secret Life as a Match Fixer."
Swaibu describes how money was handed over and laundered. He details how bets were placed, how syndicates worked, and what the hierarchy was. He details Russian, Chinese, and Singaporean match-fixing teams and how they recruited UK soccer players.
Since his release, Swaibu has become an advocate against match-fixing, collaborating with The Football Association to warn of the dangers of bribery. He is the founder of GameChanger360, an organization that coaches and advises on integrity in sport.
In 2024, Swaibu appeared in an eight-part BBC podcast about his story, "Confessions of a Match Fixer." He is the author of "Fixed: My Secret Life as a Match Fixer."
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FunTranscript
00:00My name is Moses Swaybu.
00:02I was involved in match fixing as a professional footballer.
00:05This is how crime works.
00:09The times I went to collect money or to handle some of the funds,
00:13I'd literally go into the restaurant, get a few takeaway bags,
00:16and that could have been 50 grand in that bag, wrapped up in, like, boxes.
00:20When you're so deeply involved in something, you're in your own world
00:23because the last thing I'm thinking about, am I going to get caught?
00:26I felt so empty at that time.
00:28It made me so cold and it just got deeper and deeper.
00:36The first time I was approached, I believe I was 19 or 20, at Lincoln City.
00:40Delroy Facey, who was my teammate at the time, he had played in the Premier League.
00:44We were playing a game away at Northampton.
00:47He was literally, he was very blunt and simple, come down to our room,
00:51OK, let's go down.
00:53We're sat on the bed like teenagers with me and my two teammates.
00:57This white male who was Russian, walked in and he identified himself as,
01:02he's the person paying everybody the money.
01:05And all he said was, hey, you guys need to lose.
01:07When I first saw the 60,000, it was in Euros.
01:10So, when he actually put the money on the bed, he actually said to one of the players,
01:14you can go and sleep with it, let me know how you feel in the morning.
01:17The following evening, I believe.
01:19We've travelled with the actual money on the coach and every single player that was present,
01:25including Delroy, happened to be on the bench anyway.
01:27So, we declined that offer at that time.
01:30I was wanted by Premier League clubs.
01:33We went back to our rooms and we spoke about it.
01:35And none of us had made that amount of money, but everything was about career.
01:39I never had a baby.
01:40I barely had a girlfriend.
01:41So, why would I compromise being involved in something?
01:47Well, I could probably make 60 grand anyway if you work hard.
01:49But there's a process here now.
01:52It's almost, without you realising it, it's a form of grooming without realising you being groomed.
01:59Why would I go and tell on my captain?
02:02Especially if I haven't had, between 16 and 19, any education on this.
02:07And more importantly, I'm a young professional that's only just started his career
02:12versus someone that's got over 200 appearances.
02:14I believe the second time whilst I was approached, I was more, I'll say mature,
02:18it was really about choices.
02:26So, the Chinese Syndicate was where the majority of fixes happened.
02:29It was 2011-2012 season.
02:33I was registered to Bromley.
02:35We were all doing a jog around the pitch.
02:36One of my teammates the second time was like,
02:38Moses, I have a meeting.
02:40There's a Chinese Syndicate that wants to speak to us about match fixing.
02:44So, I asked him, how many players do you need?
02:47And he said five.
02:48Then I went to the players and I was like, look, this is what the deal is.
02:52You go to the meeting, you fix a game, you get paid.
02:56So, the Mayfair Hotel was significant because it was the first time we'd ever turned around and met in a location.
03:03It was in the evening before the game, which was going to be played at Eastbourne.
03:08Mayfair Hotel has a really royal smell.
03:11It's very distinctive.
03:12Whilst we went into the bar, I remember my first time I had an Old Fashioned with a big ice cube and an orange in there.
03:19It just felt expensive.
03:21Whilst I looked around at my other teammates ordering cocktails, everybody was very much on a knife edge and you can see it in their face because you didn't know what to expect.
03:29So, when we went up, I think, on the fourth floor and just to paint a picture, when we walked into that room, the guy was chain smoking again.
03:37I saw loads of cigarette butts and he was sitting at the end of the bed with his feet off the ground.
03:42He was only like five foot tall.
03:43So, as he started to speak and the right-hand man at the time spoke about the actions, it was a really calm and relaxed environment.
03:51And when they passed us over the white paper bags, we were paid in football in brown paper bags.
03:58So, I knew what two grand felt like or a few thousand pounds and it was much more than that.
04:03So, we had a choice to make when we left, let them know within a few hours whether we want the game to go ahead so they can put on a bet.
04:11And the players met in the cars and I said, I'm in.
04:14So, Eastbourne versus Bromley.
04:16We were asked to concede two goals before 45 minutes in the first half than playing normal.
04:21I remember the first minute of that game, you had me and four other players.
04:27One of them was on the bench but three players that were playing in that game.
04:30So, the first thing as I'm commanding and doing things was like, let's sit in.
04:35But then players who are not in on the fix are giving them the ball.
04:39He's going down the line, beating a person, beating another person, beating another person.
04:441v1, hits the post.
04:46And I'm like, this is the complete opposite of what we said we're going to do.
04:51Second attack, the other guy does it.
04:53Third attack, we should have been 3-0 up rather than 0-0.
04:57So, as I was giving out instructions, I told the team to sit back and play with a low block.
05:03So, rather than attack, let's just sit in our half and depending on the type of movement, they'll have openings.
05:09Braveheart, who wasn't in on the fix, has given away a penalty.
05:13They scored 1-0 up until the point, the panic really set in because as we were playing that low block,
05:19it was only until Eastbourne have crossed the ball and the players actually handballed the ball in the area and the penalty was given.
05:25I didn't realise at the time someone had been sent to watch our game.
05:28Somebody saw the whole thing, which was the middleman.
05:31After that game, the players came a few hours later and it was just kamikaze the whole night.
05:37I was arguing, going back and forward, why they're not being paid, etc, etc.
05:41Up until the following day, when we went to Canning Town and received the money, I had a white SLK at the time, which was completely tinted.
05:49I saw, like, he was probably 50 kilos.
05:53Like, he literally looked like a teenager.
05:55And he had, like, what was it, three or four Sainsbury's bags.
05:59And I'm like, surely that can't be him, surely that can't be him.
06:03Then as he gets closer to the car and I open my door, he just says a name, which was the middleman's name.
06:09Just drops the money in the footwell and as I'm sitting down on the car, I had my seat low and my hands on the wheel.
06:15And as I've, like, jerked the car forward, it's gone back and the money's just falling out.
06:19So at the time, I just remember that the middleman was laughing, put on French music.
06:23And this was probably the first time I've ever driven that car with two hands on the wheel, looking straight.
06:28We travelled from Canning Town to Ravahoe Tunnel, to Tower Bridge, to Over the Bridge, and I was, like, panicking the whole way.
06:34So, probably the first time I'd actually done the speed limit in that car.
06:37When we got back to the Mayfair Hotel, the players were just infuriated.
06:41To be honest with you, I didn't have an emotion when I took that money.
06:44I didn't care. That was the first time I'd actually spoken to the main person because he wanted to guarantee the money was received.
06:52And as my Bluetooth was connected and I spoke to him, he just told me bluntly, like, you're going to take over.
06:58After that meeting, there was, like, quite a delayed gap for the next fix.
07:02They wanted to penetrate English football at the time.
07:04So, they wanted me to help them initially in the beginning to try and find people that's played, like, a high level,
07:10that are quite senior and mature because they're coming to the back end of their career.
07:13But that was a tough task because, at the time, I'm only 24 and that was, like, another high level version of what they wanted to do.
07:25So, over the span of the first fix compared to every other fix that happened after that, they call it data and analytics now.
07:32So, they knew much more about us than we knew about ourselves from a football point.
07:35How many times you use your left and right foot? Where are you vulnerable? How many crosses does the team have?
07:41How do you now study the opponent?
07:43So, the language that they spoke about the data was so important because if you were highly analytical in your defender,
07:49you're the last line of defence so you see everything.
07:52If you're a midfielder, it's a different perspective because they may turn around and be like,
07:56well, we want you to just hold this line and defend deep because it invites pressure.
08:01When you look at spot fixing and match fixing, even though they're very much similar things,
08:05you need to look at the way the betting markets are operating.
08:08So, for example, spot fixing can look like all I want you to do is get a yellow card in the first ten minutes,
08:14then you can play normal.
08:16It's much easier to spot fix than it is to match fix.
08:19So, we actually spot fixed a lot more than we match fixed.
08:22And if you include a yellow and red card, that can be anything from five to ten grand.
08:27So, you don't actually have to win or lose a game.
08:29Or if he turns around and they say, well, we need you guys to concede between 70 and 80 minutes,
08:36that game may be tight.
08:37But then what I realised, oh, well, he's actually got the other team as well.
08:41Because what you find in crime, you always think you're the main person
08:45or you're the central figure in your mind, but then you don't realise that you're almost collateral damage
08:49because you're almost Nemo in this big pond.
08:52So, when we started meeting other teams and we were meeting up and I realised that
08:56if you almost control one person, that can move specific markets and indicators.
09:03And if you look at where in America point shaving is, that line of movement now is detected by data.
09:09But then how many of these data people actually go and see these games live?
09:13So, how can you tell me if a game is fixed or not?
09:21The Chinese Syndicate, they had a very stringent hierarchy, if I say that.
09:26So, the main player, the main man, I probably saw him two to three occasions.
09:31His right hand man was actually a student.
09:34He was almost the head of the whole operation.
09:36He was able logistically to move amounts of money through couriers, traffickers,
09:41how the players are getting paid, what markets the bets are being put on,
09:45and create an infrastructure with me where I can locate players on inside information
09:50and squads and what's going to happen.
09:52We trained on Tuesdays, Thursdays played on Saturdays,
09:55but from Monday to Sunday, I was always in direct dialogue with their right hand man at the time.
10:00And the games that weren't being fixed, because not every game was fixed,
10:03I just got to understand their business and their reasons as to why they have such a successful globalised version of what they do.
10:12So, for example, the times I went to collect money or to handle some of the funds,
10:17I'd literally go into the restaurant, say my name, say an order, go into the back, come back,
10:24get a few takeaway bags, and that could have been 50 grand in that bag wrapped up in boxes.
10:29On an average day, I'd wake up, a lot of the conversations we'll have will be on Skype or Telegram.
10:34Every Monday would be a review of what happened on the weekend.
10:38I may wake up to an emoji of angry face, and that means something's gone wrong.
10:42Or it's Sunday morning, I wake up to a thumbs up, that means business has done well.
10:46So the levels of communication weren't sentences and paragraphs and, hey, bro, what are you doing?
10:51It was very much emoji based.
10:53When I saw angry face, that meant another team had done something wrong,
10:57and the boss wanted to speak to me to find out inside information on what's happening.
11:01We've lost 250 grand, for example.
11:04I'm like, okay, well, even though that has nothing to do with me, what do you want me to do?
11:08Just find X, Y and Z out, okay, go to the restaurant, pick up a grand.
11:13Let me know in two days what you find.
11:15I don't find anything.
11:16He gives me another grand.
11:17Find some more.
11:18Come on.
11:19Emoji, emoji, emoji.
11:20I'm angry.
11:21Just do your job.
11:22Don't ask too much questions because that's a form of paranoia.
11:25I didn't see a threat to life.
11:28I wasn't given a bullet or a gun and said, hey, I'm going to kill you if this happens
11:32because I never ran away the money.
11:34And more importantly, if you start asking questions, you now put your name and place
11:39into conversations that don't need to be had because what you're asking is structure.
11:45I've never heard of a coach or a referee or official even being offered a bribe or a bung.
11:54It was purely the players simply because of risk.
11:57One conversation with a referee or coach or anyone outside the players will bring everything down.
12:03Corruption does exist within the world of referees.
12:06Yeah, no, it definitely does.
12:07But I think what we need to remember is scope and location.
12:11Even at the lower tiers, there's still a good governance for officials, which allows fans
12:18and people watching those games to know that the referees and coaches have not been compromised.
12:24What you'll find in match fixing, it usually comes from my experience with someone that's trusted.
12:29The gambling culture in sport is rife.
12:32So if I'm 30 years old, for example, and I see that young player coming into the team
12:36and I'm playing blackjack at the back of the coach, I might be like, hey, come and play a game.
12:41Then that young player seeing us bet £1,000 and he may get approached if he gets released.
12:46And they may turn around and say, OK, well, you don't have to do anything.
12:49Just go and get me a player's name. That's £500.
12:52Or if the syndicate needs other players to book hotels or for them to go undetected,
12:58I can give you a grand for booking the Hilton Hotel.
13:00Football's a relationship based business.
13:02So your character is very key because if you, for example, turn around and said to me at the time,
13:07Moses is match fixing, but I'm your captain.
13:10Then the psychological effects almost in a very highly toxic, egotistical way is
13:15you're almost killing people softly without realising that a lot of this money and system,
13:21again, come back to one thing.
13:23Who's influential and what type of relationships you have.
13:26At that time at Bromley, I was very close with the manager.
13:29The manager in and around New Year's told me I wasn't getting paid because I was having my daughter.
13:35So then he gave me the fire to justify everything I've done to say, you know what?
13:40I made the right decision.
13:41Then when you're speaking to other players and they haven't been paid, the conversation's easier.
13:46Hey, look what the gaffer sent to me.
13:48If he thinks that about me and more importantly, I haven't got a contract that's really worth anything apart from the papers been printed on,
13:55how can you tell me to miss my midwife appointment because we've got a game on a Saturday?
14:00And I can almost use this as an advertising tool to every single player that I speak to.
14:05Look how managers are treating us.
14:07Because it's all a form of manipulation and more importantly, that manipulation can pinpoint anybody.
14:12Could you imagine if players were injured?
14:14You know, could you imagine if you owed somebody money?
14:17Could you imagine if your captain said, hey, speak to me, what's your problems?
14:21Oh, Moses, you know what?
14:22I want to get a wedding ring.
14:23I want to propose.
14:24Take five grand.
14:25Pay me back whenever you want, because all you need to do is ask one person a favour.
14:29You know what?
14:31On 20 minutes, I just need you to concede.
14:34Why, Moses?
14:35I don't need to tell you why.
14:36Just do it.
14:37If you go and do that, I'll give you 10 grand.
14:39Why would he say no?
14:41And we have that bona fide relationship where we've actually gone into legitimate games.
14:46In Truro, fought relegation battles and everybody's running around each other and all happy when drinking beers.
14:53The last thing you're going to think about me and other people is what you're actually involved in.
14:57Football's a very tight niche industry from the top all the way down to the bottom.
15:02The two players that I reached out to was the two occasions things went wrong.
15:07Remember, I learned how to do this myself.
15:09Player one, he'd done such a good job.
15:13The boss pushed me to the side and only wanted to deal with him.
15:17This player went and got the goalkeeper.
15:19Some think that's the holy grail, if you have the goalkeeper.
15:22Off the back of that, we went into a game where, because of his involvement,
15:27the whole fix was played out like a theatre.
15:30Everything you could imagine went wrong.
15:31The fans heard it, the players heard it.
15:33The second player was Michael Boateng, who actually did not fix any football match.
15:38He just happened to know me. I gave him money. I introduced him to Delray.
15:42And within a month or so, imagine somebody that's never been arrested,
15:46goes from being arrested to now being put in jail.
15:49So those two scenarios are a variation of, I was able to use my influence in a team
15:55to allow the work I was doing to speak volumes to other people without realising it's me.
16:00I really started off as a group. The first interactions were always with me,
16:04and I'll say between three and five players.
16:06After the group, when we actually fixed the game, I then went into, I'll say probably more senior role,
16:14because of what I'd done. The almost final role was me now being my own betting app, company, bookmaker.
16:23I'll say if we start at the top, the Premier League's better governed. The payments are astronomical.
16:34Like any other sporting league or federation, as you go down, you're less paid.
16:40I was playing, I believe, at step five or six at the time, so it was a level below the conference.
16:45I was probably on £800 to £1,000 in cash in the Premier League. It's watched by millions.
16:51The level that I'm playing at is watched by a couple of hundred people, if that.
16:55So, first of all, you start off by taking pocket money.
17:00Whilst you're sitting there with them, you're almost giving them the inside scoop of,
17:04OK, well, this is how this manager plays. At this point, if this team has a successful FA Cup run,
17:10you'll know in non-league, they usually have a worse season.
17:13So, behind the scenes, managers and clubs that have good FA Cup runs, lower level, get paid,
17:19and they don't really worry about the season because they've secured funding for the following couple of seasons.
17:25So, when you're speaking and sitting down and going back and forward with these,
17:29you almost formulate a plan and part of that plan, you need players.
17:34If you have five players, it's great. If you have a few players, it's even better because,
17:38do you have a few players on your team or could you balance it out three and three or one on one or two and two?
17:43If you have one player for team A and one player for team B, that's even better than having five players
17:48because these two players, all they need to do is create spot-fixing elements
17:52where you concede in the first half, you concede in the second half.
17:57If you were to go into a normal bookies and say 20 teams are all going to win,
18:00what's the likelihood of that actually happening?
18:02But imagine going into this system knowing that 20 teams are actually going to win
18:05and there's a 99.9% return on that.
18:08So, then when the money comes, if that's a few million,
18:11how do you now launder and wash that money because that can come in a week?
18:15Was there a point where any of your friends or family were just like,
18:18kind of, see that you've got a bit of the money now, like what's going on?
18:21Did you have to lie to them?
18:22To be honest, it's a great question because they only found out until I'd done the podcast.
18:26So, I was on a BBC podcast called Confessions of a Match Fixer
18:30that came out in August of 2024.
18:33We'd done a listening for the podcast.
18:34That was the first time my family found out.
18:36The only person that half knew was my brother, but not to the extent.
18:40So, again, that journey was the hardest thing I've had to do
18:43because I've had to go back and revisit people I hadn't seen for 15 years.
18:47So, their version of Moses was Moses that played football.
18:50So, 15 plus years later, hearing that, the room was silent.
18:55My mum didn't know.
18:56My sister didn't know.
18:58Didn't know the extent.
19:00They didn't know anything.
19:06We are part of this almost chessboard.
19:08So, for example, I used to play centre-back.
19:11If I play left or right side centre-back, I can be hugely influential throughout the whole team.
19:18If I was watching a match, for example, how would I be able to spot that it was fixed?
19:23I don't think you would.
19:25The only way you could potentially spot it...
19:27I'll give you an example.
19:28We could watch an international game or a Premier League match.
19:31The defender slips and a goal goes in.
19:34Ah, it's match-fixing.
19:35Because when someone does something that isn't really of the normal,
19:40you're going to be like, ah, this match was fixed.
19:43It's just human nature.
19:44Even before I was match-fixing, I was like, that looks odd.
19:47Why would he go and do that?
19:48But then again, when you're on the pitch, mistakes happen.
19:51And this is why it's so sophisticated because you can never really tell.
19:55What data can do is detect and, with different technologies, help you understand it.
20:01I'll give you an example.
20:02If you look at a football pitch, depending on the pattern of play, the style of play, the positioning,
20:08you'll be able to tell if you're an experienced defender,
20:11why are you marking the wrong channel or the wrong side in this specific moment?
20:15Or if you're an experienced striker, how have you angled your body at this moment
20:20and taken that shot and it's just gone a yard off the post?
20:23Or if you're a midfielder, why are you not as mobile as what you are?
20:26Because if you look at that and you compare it to the market and bets that are placed on that game,
20:31any line or movement on a legal market will kind of help you understand,
20:36oh, was that game fixed? But how many fans do that? If that makes sense?
20:40When you watch a game, you don't watch a game to think it's fixed.
20:43You watch a game because you love the sport and more importantly, it's fair.
20:46And it's an equal playing field. And that's why betting markets exist.
20:50So the Chinese syndicate, they had a system. And on that system I saw the amounts being placed on that market
21:02and there was a delay. So for example, if they had a market open in Asia,
21:07they could put on a delay in live time because at that time, obviously data and analytics weren't what it was.
21:13All of our matches were being transmitted and recorded. One of the mules sat in the crowd.
21:18Every fix that was agreed, we'll put our hands up or make an acknowledgement.
21:22He's recording the game with a headset and he's telling the market or he's telling the principal exactly what's happening.
21:30So whilst the market's moving and bets are being placed and where they are,
21:33more people are putting on markets because that can be the only game that's fixed on that market at that time.
21:38So imagine knowing A, the outcome is going to happen and B, what the scores are going to be.
21:43So that little line movement from my understanding at that time was what made them considerable amounts of money.
21:48So towards the end of my fixing career, if you want to call it that, I had two options.
21:52Do I go and expand this into Europe and the UK? Do I become my own bookmaker?
21:57I had the cash and the liquidity. I can now understand enough about how to get illegal bets on to make margins.
22:04But then off the back of doing that, I also had a daughter on the way.
22:09And the last almost fix that we'd done, whilst I retired from football,
22:14I was caught between a rock and a hard place because I knew where the money was.
22:17And more importantly, I had access to that money before I was actually arrested.
22:22And I didn't realise, I was probably depressed at the time without realising what that looks like.
22:25I left Bromley. I was at Whitehawk for a few weeks and Sutton for probably a couple of, probably like a month or two.
22:32And funny enough, when I went to Sutton, I felt that feeling and buzz again.
22:37But then I was like, I don't think I can play here without match fixing.
22:41I don't have that same hunger or desire. Let me leave.
22:44I've left, contemplating retirement.
22:46Michaels rang me because he was at Whitehawk.
22:49Going back and forward to the manager and he was like, yeah, we want to offer you £350.
22:53But what he didn't realise, I was already a millionaire by then.
22:56So it wasn't about the money.
22:58So as I'm being pulled back, something's telling me, expand this business.
23:03But let's not make any excuses here.
23:06It's very simple. It's greed.
23:08You know, the more of something you get, you want more.
23:11Because ultimately you have to remember, whilst I'm going through this, nobody knows.
23:15I'm not speaking to friends. I'm not speaking to family.
23:18I'm not speaking to my girlfriend.
23:20Then I got roped back in again.
23:22So I'm almost having a battle with myself saying, I want to get out.
23:25OK, I get out. What am I going to do? And I'm sitting at home.
23:28Then I still have access to this international network.
23:31And they're telling me, you've done what you've done in the UK.
23:33Let's go and build this in Europe and international.
23:36And that's when I met the third syndicate.
23:38So we had the Russians in the beginning, the Chinese and the last dance,
23:43if you want to call it, was the Singaporeans.
23:45It actually started or stemmed from Australia.
23:47So there was a bunch of players that played at the same level that we played.
23:52They went over to Australia and they were match fixing.
23:55So I believe they had to spend a significant amount of time over there.
24:00But I remember, as I knew one of those players, I remember like, oh, ringing him.
24:04Like, what was happening?
24:05And he vaguely told me then, lo and behold, that stemmed from a guy called Terry Steens
24:12doing his own investigation to find out the route maps as to other English players,
24:17potentially, that were involved in match fixing.
24:19So Wilson Perlmal Raj has been convicted for match fixing charges internationally.
24:23So through Wilson, he met Chan Sankaran and Krishna Ganeshesh.
24:27They were paid by The Telegraph at the time to come to the UK.
24:31Obviously, they didn't know that was an investigation,
24:34but they were given 60,000 by The Telegraph to find players.
24:40They happened to have a channel to Delroy Faisi.
24:42Delroy Faisi happened to have a channel to me and I had a channel to Michael Botang.
24:46Michael Botang at that time, we had played at Crystal Palace's Academy.
24:50He was two years younger than me.
24:51So he was the one person that I spent the most time with
24:54because he knew match fixing was happening, but he didn't know it was me.
24:57So by the time he found out, I didn't want him to get involved
25:01and I gave him like a loan for his car without me realising.
25:04I'm actually inducing him.
25:05Following on from that, he found out I was fixing and I was like,
25:08okay, I'm not going to do it with you.
25:11I'm going to show you how to do it.
25:12I'm going to introduce you to Del.
25:13Michael was actively playing.
25:15He had control and leadership over Whitehawk.
25:18He could potentially manipulate and pinpoint what I'd done at Eastbourne.
25:22And all I was going to do then was say, here's A, here's B.
25:25This is the part.
25:26That's how much I'm taking and not actually have an involvement up until
25:29Michael lied to me.
25:30Why would you go to a meeting and meet the NCA without realising and not tell me?
25:34So when I rang him, I heard the trembling in his voice from that lie.
25:38Michael, where are you?
25:40Why are you asking?
25:41I don't ever speak to you like that.
25:43Why?
25:44What's up?
25:45Then I knew because of what I was being told by the syndicate, he was lying.
25:48And that game was like 60 grand if it happened.
25:50He would have took obviously the lion's share, but I wanted to teach him a lesson.
25:54But then my ego got in the way.
25:56So as my ego is getting in the way and I've gone to Kings Meadow and I've got tickets
26:00and I've met the new syndicate, part of me being there was to teach Michael a lesson.
26:05And as I'm trying to teach him a lesson, that's how I got arrested.
26:142013, I was arrested.
26:17The day that I met Shankaran and Sham for the first time, they'd come from Manchester on my direction.
26:22The match was fixed.
26:23We agreed five grand if the game was successful and I got 20.
26:27So at half time, I was like, where's the money?
26:29Because you haven't given it to me, but let's go to a local restaurant.
26:32Went to a local Asian restaurant, sat down, we're talking, he hands me a bag.
26:36I've gone in to the toilets, counted it, it was three grand.
26:39And I'm like, three and five?
26:41What's the difference?
26:42Two?
26:43Is that what we're arguing about?
26:44Then I said, I was actually saying to myself, why am I even here?
26:46So we start arguing and he's arguing and obviously we're the only people at a restaurant
26:51then a blonde woman walks in.
26:53I'm like, that's odd.
26:55So as we're arguing, we're arguing, she sits right next to us on the table.
26:59And I'm thinking, we're in the middle of Kingston.
27:01She's got heels on, blonde hair, glasses on.
27:03And I'm like, she should be in Mayfair.
27:05This is odd.
27:06So as I'm arguing with Chan, my friend Benji at the time is with Krishna.
27:11Then a male walks in and I'm like, he's in a suit.
27:13I was like, what's going on?
27:15So then he walks around in the same kind of like way she did.
27:18And he sits down and like their body language is a ton next to us.
27:22And my heart's just pumping.
27:24And my instincts kicked in and I was like, I've got to go.
27:27I called Ben.
27:28Ben was taken forever, even though it may have been a minute.
27:30It felt like a long time.
27:32Then as Chan's shouting, he's like, oh, look, he ripped me off.
27:35Just give me my money back.
27:36Ben comes, Krishna comes.
27:38We walk out the restaurant.
27:39I'm like, Ben, let's just get to the car.
27:41Then as we got to the alleyway, I just heard footsteps.
27:44Then I remember they shouted at NCA, but I didn't know what they were.
27:49Then I just remember freezing, not being able to move.
27:52It weren't normal handcuffs.
27:53They put like these and like strings.
27:56I was like, when I watched the films, this is what murderers get put in.
28:00Or like, this must be serious.
28:01Then they're like, we're the police.
28:03Then it wasn't until they said, you've been arrested for conspiracy to defraud the betting trade.
28:10The first thing I asked them because my girlfriend was cooking a chicken curry and I was like, I'll be back in an hour.
28:15First thing in my mind, what's Crystal going to say?
28:18Then after that, I saw the woman and I saw the man with normal police handcuffs.
28:23I was like, ah, damn.
28:25Then when we came out, all of the cars opposite the restaurant and outside the ground were all police cars with lights.
28:32Then where Ben got arrested and Krishna got arrested.
28:36So the observation or the obo that they had, they followed Krishna from Manchester, didn't know who was meeting.
28:43He ran into us and they've now got their case.
28:46The National Crime Agency in the UK were the law enforcement agency that led our investigation.
28:53The NCA had been given a case file by the Daily Telegraph at the time, many months after the season had ended.
29:00Because after the 2012-13 season, the NCA had caught the third syndicate because the game that I invited them to,
29:09Aves and Wilmington versus Daglem and Redbridge was the game I said that was fixed.
29:13So whilst they had an observation, they bunged the rooms, they had live recordings, they heard us speak about fixing, etc.
29:20But they never knew about all of the other games that were fixed in the previous season.
29:25The people at the top of the pyramid were never brought to trial.
29:28But Chand Sankaran and Ganeshesh, I believe they got five years.
29:32Delroy served two and a half years in prison. He was convicted with me on the second trial.
29:36And Michael Botang served 16 months a year before I went to prison.
29:40We both got 16 months and I'm four months in prison, four months on the HTC tag.
29:45Then the rest of my sentence was outside on licence.
29:48You know what, this might sound controversial, yeah, but I think getting a prison sentence is just a word.
29:55Being rehabilitated is what we're looking for here.
29:59People make mistakes, I've made mistakes, but more importantly, I believe everybody deserves a second chance.
30:05And I feel part of the guilt even now that kind of lives with me is knowing, even though I've transitioned and I've come out the other end, Michael hasn't.
30:14Dora hasn't. They got bans. I was banned for 15 years.
30:19I'm the only person that went to the FA and actually admitted, like, this is what I've done, how can I help?
30:24Did any of your colleagues like really find out towards the end that you were fixing?
30:34I'll say 2020 I'm playing local football and a player who obviously knew about what was happening.
30:41I've seen him and I've said hello and the response I got was quite cold.
30:46Then I remember him saying, do you know how much you affected me?
30:51Because the league and people found out that match fixing and you was involved, that affected me and the team.
30:59Nobody wanted to sign me. There was a question mark on all of us.
31:03He didn't want to make any money. He just wanted to play football. I'm not in football no more.
31:08So when I meet people, I come across them, their version of Moses Suebu was the version of everything before 2015.
31:16They don't see the reform or change because there's no interaction.
31:19And for whatever reason, I was saved by actually going to prison. That sounds quite scary.
31:24Prison actually saved my life. If I did not go to prison and I wasn't arrested that day,
31:30I would have either been dead on a first class fight ticket to Singapore or one of the biggest match fixers that have ever existed.
31:38Because that's what my mentality was and that's where my mind was going.
31:42It's almost like Jekyll and Hyde for those who haven't read it.
31:45I've gone from being the most enthusiastic and passionate and I'll die for this game to I hate this.
31:52I don't even want to see a football.
31:54There was no middle ground here. It's either it was really good or it was really bad.
31:58And I think for me, part of the worst place any human being can do is when you're stripped from your, almost your human rights and who you are.
32:07You're given a number, rock bottom is sitting down in that prison cell looking outside the window,
32:12realising for the foreseeable future, this is my life now.
32:17In prison, I didn't speak to nobody. I didn't want to have any outside interest with the world apart from my daughter.
32:23And I feel within that, that almost allowed me to hate the game even more.
32:29Because the accountability wasn't really taken until I actually sat down and understood who I was.
32:35I left prison in 2015. Week after I left prison, I went and done an interview at the FA for my tribunal.
32:42Following on that, they put together quite quickly an integrity education format for Premier League players.
32:48Then that was my first real role around working for the first time.
32:53I've been very fortunate to go and speak at the European Council with 10 plus countries ratifying a convention that says,
32:59we're going to sign up to this treaty for anti-corruption.
33:02I've spoken to attorney generals, prime ministers, you know, directors at FIFA and in the world, the Olympic Committee.
33:08And I would have never been able to have these conversations had it not been for my story.
33:12The book is called Fixed, My Secret Life of a Match Fixer.
33:15The book is over 280 pages of the rawest version of a corruption story in sport you're ever going to hear.
33:25Probably from my time, football and the sporting industry have improved in adding an integrity officer.
33:37Those integrity officers are doing multiple courses around how to help that individual.
33:42I think where things fall short is having sufficient enough evidence from just being approached in order to make sure that the right framework's done.
33:52Just having the bravery to turn around and do the right thing is the first step.
33:57And again, that can include telling anybody that you give that information to that's trusted.
34:03So between 2015 and 2019, I've been into every single Premier League club.
34:08In a season, I've been approached by several players in four years.
34:11People coming up to me and saying, oh, you're Moses, right? Yeah, I saw your story.
34:15By the way, such and such happened at this period of time or I was approached this time.
34:19But I reported it and done the right thing.
34:21You can slowly bet within reason because it's legal.
34:24Because what we don't realise, athletes have a lot of time.
34:27So you train a couple of hours, you go home.
34:29What are you doing with your time?
34:30So the algorithm on your phone is getting betting, betting, betting, gambling, gambling, gambling.
34:36Every session I've done with young players, the first question they ask me is, why are we sponsored by a betting company?
34:42And we're not allowed to bet? Oh yeah, because that's the rules.
34:45And I actually can't explain it because I don't work for BetX or whatever company it is.
34:49And what you find is this generation of player goes to become a thought international and a player earns loads of money.
34:57I'm pretty sure if you were to do a survey of 10 players, you probably have more than half that have either used some form of app or betting.
35:04For example, if you compare it again to 2025, I don't need to go into the bookies.
35:10I can download an app, register a name, get my family member to place bets on there and it doesn't link back to me.
35:16To my knowledge, there isn't a significant law that actually governs what match fixing is.
35:21People who are tried and convicted are usually convicted around bribery and fraud charges.
35:27When you go outside of the UK, mainly in Europe, part of the struggles that they have is the time period spent from an investigation to actually getting a criminal conviction.
35:36And within that time, a player or athlete can still play and operate.
35:40So there's a significant lack of evidence because there's not enough people coming forward and explaining the different types of approaches.
35:47I don't think it's a situation about what league, as we're seeing.
35:51This happens in the Premier League, the most watched league in the world, in the whole world with billions of people.
35:56At the lower league, it's going to happen. Maybe there's less scrutiny because nobody watches it, but corruption doesn't discriminate against you because you're higher or you're lower.
36:06As long as, again, there's a live betting market and there's an opportunity for people to make money, crime's always going to exist.
36:13Hi, I'm a producer on how crime works. If you enjoyed this video, then please subscribe and comment below with more ideas of topics you'd like us to cover in this series.
36:32I'll see you next time.
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