BY: Elena Chong & Salma Khalik

RETAIL magnate Tang Wee Sung was going to pay $300,000 for a kidney, a court heard yesterday.

That was the sum that would have gone into the hands of his alleged broker, Wang Chin Sing, 43, who is accused of getting him an Indonesian man willing to sell the organ.

The transaction, which is illegal under the Human Organ Transplant Act (Hota), was derailed when the authorities stepped in and arrested the organ seller in Lucky Plaza last month, before the transplant took place.

Tang, 56, the executive chairman of retail chain C.K. Tang, appeared in court yesterday afternoon accompanied by family, friends and a private nurse.

Dressed in a light blue shirt and tie, he looked well despite a medical emergency that had landed him in Gleneagles Hospital earlier, preventing him from turning up in the morning to hear the charges against him.

The bachelor became the first person in Singapore to be charged with trying to buy a kidney, an offence that carries a fine of up to $10,000, a year in jail, or both.

A diabetic for some years, he had to go on dialysis a year ago.

His health woes were further complicated by high blood pressure and heart problems, putting him at a higher risk of death than most diabetics. Without a transplant, his chances of surviving five years were slim.

Kidney patients have got around the Hota by travelling overseas to buy an organ for transplant and having the operation abroad.

Some 300 people have done so, going to India and China and paying between $100,000 and $200,000. Tang had previously said that he might get a kidney in Beijing, where he has relatives, or the United States.

It is not clear what the $300,000 fee Tang allegedly promised Wang was supposed to cover, nor how much of a cut Wang would keep. A transplant operation here costs about $87,000.

Another man was also named in the court documents as being a party to the arrangements: Mr Whang Sung Lin, 43, who is believed to be married to Tang's niece and is in the bedlinen trade. Mr Whang declined comment when contacted.

The man who was to give Tang his kidney, Mr Sulaiman Damanik, 26, was freed on Saturday after three weeks in jail. He was supposed to be paid about $23,700.

Wang had also allegedly acted as the middleman for another donor and recipient, who paid him $8,000 for his service.

An Indonesian man, Toni, 27, had given up a kidney to an Indonesian woman, Ms Juliana Soh. He was paid $29,390. The transplant took place at Mount Elizabeth Hospital on March 17. Toni is now serving out his sentence.

Wang, whose wife runs a music school, was charged yesterday morning for his role in both transactions.

His lawyer, Mr Shashi Nathan, described Wang as a "medical concierge" who would bring Indonesian clients to Singapore and arrange for medical treatment with various hospitals here. He would match his clients' requirements with specialist doctors available here.

The lawyer said that the incidents involving the kidney transplants were separate from his usual activity of referring clients to local doctors.

Tang posted bail of $15,000, while Wang is out on $30,000 bail. Their next court date is on July 21.

About this case

SINGAPORE'S first illegal organ transplant cases were exposed on May 29 when the Health Ministry learnt that blood samples from various foreign nationals had been sent here to cross-match against the blood sample of a Singaporean.

Two Indonesian men were arrested and later pleaded guilty in court last month. Mr Sulaiman Damanik, 26, was jailed for two weeks and fined $1,000. He spent an extra week in jail for failing to pay the fine.

He was prepared to sell his kidney to retail magnate Tang Wee Sung for about $23,700. He has served his sentence.

Toni, 27, was jailed for 31/2 months and fined $2,000. He sold his kidney to Indonesian Juliana Soh for $29,390 in March.

The accusations:

Wang Chin Sing, 43, faces 10 charges
The alleged broker was supposedly to receive about $300,000 to get Tang a kidney donor.

He found Mr Sulaiman. Wang allegedly coached Mr Sulaiman and Tang to lie before a Commissioner of Oaths that they were related and that no money was changing hands in the organ donation.

He was also accused of coaching them to lie to a Transplant Ethics Committee which had to be satisfied that all was above board before the transplant could go ahead. Wang also allegedly did the same in the case of Toni who sold his kidney to Ms Soh.

Tang Wee Sung, 56, faces three charges
He allegedly planned to pay Wang $300,000 for a kidney.

He was also accused of lying in a statutory declaration and to a transplant ethics committee that Mr Sulaiman was his distant relative and that he had not paid for the kidney.

The maximum punishments:

• For supplying an organ illegally: a fine of not more than $10,000 or a jail term of up to 12 months, or both.
  
  
• For making or abetting the making of a false statutory declaration: a jail term of up to three years and a fine.
  
  
• For lying or abetting a lie to the transplant ethics committee: a fine of up to $2,000 or a jail term of up to 12 months, or both.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 11, 2008.