Jail for man who sold 1,149 obscene films on 180 occasions, earning over $13k

SINGAPORE – A man sold 1,149 obscene films to multiple people on at least 180 occasions and received $13,690 in total for them.

On March 4, Gregory Seow Rui Jie, 26, who committed the offence between November 2023 and May 2024, pleaded guilty to one count of selling obscene materials and was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Niranjan Ranjakunalan said that Seow does not object to having his ill-gotten gains forfeited to the State for disposal.

It all started in or around January 2023, when he browsed a microblogging site and came across posts by a user, identified only as A1 in court documents.

A1 had posted censored nude pictures of women and invited direct messages from those who wanted more information about such images.

Seow contacted A1 as he wanted to buy sexually explicit videos and images from the latter. He paid A1 $50, and contemplated re-selling such items to earn some money.

Seow later received a link to a folder containing pornographic material. He downloaded the material onto his personal account on a storage platform, as well as devices such as the hard disk of his laptop computer.

In November 2023, Seow created a few accounts on the microblogging site, and advertised the sale of the sexually explicit material. An undisclosed number of netizens contacted him, expressing their interest in buying them.

The DPP said: “The accused initially charged his customers $50 for all the sexual material... With time, the accused started charging his customers $100 and then $200.”

“After receiving payment, the accused would send the customer a URL for a link (on the storage service platform) which contained the sexual material.”

An unnamed person alerted the police on Aug 5, 2024, and Seow was arrested after officers went to his home two days later. They also seized his mobile phone and laptop, the court heard.

Seow was released on bail on Aug 8, 2024 and was charged in court in 2025.