BY: Ben Nadarajan and Teh Joo Lin

THE alleged middleman named in the recent controversy involving Singapore's first illegal transplant cases has been arrested by the police.

Wang Chin Seng, 44, spent the whole of yesterday at the Criminal Investigation Department in the Police Cantonment Complex giving a police statement.

It was his second police interview.

He was released from the police station at about 6pm. His wife, who runs a music school, posted police bail of $30,000 for his release.

His passport has been impounded by the police since three weeks ago and his bank accounts have also been frozen, his lawyer Shashi Nathan from Harry Elias Partnership told The Straits Times last night.

Wang, a father of two, is said to be a former musician who travelled abroad for concerts but has been making a living as a hospital 'facilitator'.

He sources for overseas patients who want to consult doctors here and gets a cut from the doctors for his recommendations.

He was named in court documents as the middleman in recent cases involving an Indonesian man who sold his kidney and another who almost sold his.

According to court papers, Wang was engaged by retail company CK Tang's chairman Tang Wee Sung to source for a donor who was willing to sell his kidney to him.

He is also said to have helped arrange the sale of another Indonesian man's kidney to an Indonesian woman, Ms Juliana Soh, in March.

The documents refer to Wang as a 'referral agent'.

The Human Organ Transplant Act bans the sale of human organs and anyone who aids in setting up such a transaction can be jailed up to a year.

Making a false statutory declaration or abetting one is punishable by a maximum jail term of three years.

The kidneys-for-sale cases have sparked nationwide debate on whether the organ trade should be made legal.

Singapore changed its laws in 2004 to allow organ transplants from living donors, with the caveat that no money changed hands and that the agreement was not made under fraud or duress.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has said that there would be no possibility of legalising organ trading any time soon, as it 'exploits the poor and the disadvantaged and is morally wrong'.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 10, 2008.