Woman who falsely claimed she met ex-DBS CEO in Bali blames social media manager for viral post
Teo Yan Ting
TNP
May 26, 2025
The LinkedIn user who falsely claimed she met former DBS CEO Piyush Gupta in Bali has broken her silence - blaming a freelance social media manager for posting the now-deleted content without her consent.
Speaking to 8World News on Saturday, May 24, Ms Janney Hujic said the post was uploaded while she was away on an expedition in Vietnam, and she was unaware of it until the controversy went viral.
She alleged that the social media manager, whom she hired in March through a friend's recommendation, later demanded S$5,000 to take the post down.
Screenshots of messages provided to 8World show the manager saying: "Post has over 6k engagement. Pay me 5k SGD and I take down."
According to Ms Hujic, the manager - based in the Philippines - also changed her LinkedIn login credentials.
One message read: "When I get paid I give you back access."
Ms Hujic said the individual had been paid S$1 per like on posts and was given access to both her LinkedIn and Instagram accounts.
Her partner had transferred a sum in hopes of restoring access to the accounts, but Ms Hujic did not specify how much was paid to the social media manager.
The original LinkedIn post, published on May 19, was titled "A chance encounter with the ex-CEO of DBS - in the last place I expected."
It described a supposed meeting with Mr Gupta at a café in Bali, where Ms Hujic said she shared details about her upcoming all-women expedition to Mongolia in support of the Goh Chok Tong Enable Fund (GCTEF).
A photo accompanying the post showed Ms Hujic beside a man in a floral shirt - who turned out not to be Mr Gupta.
Mr Gupta himself debunked the post the next day, commenting: "Sorry to disillusion you. That isn't me!"
The man in the photo was later identified as 58-year-old Singaporean Kumar H Subramaniam, who told Mothership that he had made it clear to Ms Hujic and her companion at the café that he was not Mr Gupta.
He said the pair mentioned they had previously worked at DBS, and Ms Hujic joked about pranking her friends.
While he agreed to take a photo, Mr Kumar stressed that he never consented to having his image used to promote any business or social initiative.
Ms Hujic told 8World that she had shared the photo privately in a group chat and on Instagram with a light-hearted caption noting the resemblance.
She claimed she had no knowledge the photo had also been posted on LinkedIn.
She said she lost access to her social media accounts on Monday, the day she began a cave exploration trip in Vietnam's Tu Lan region, where there is no internet connection.
By the time she regained connectivity on Saturday, the post had gone viral - and she was unable to log back into her accounts.
Ms Hujic also responded to concerns raised by SG Enable, which manages the Goh Chok Tong Enable Fund (GCTEF).
The organisation issued a statement saying that neither Ms Hujic nor her company, Elysian Expeditions, were authorised fundraising partners, despite the use of the GCTEF logo on the company's promotional materials.
"We reached out to Ms Hujic on May 21, 2025 to seek clarifications about the fundraising campaign and to date, we have not received a response," the statement read.
In response, Ms Hujic said she had applied for authorisation to raise funds under her company's name, but had yet to clarify the relationship between her expedition and the company.
She added that she only saw SG Enable's email after regaining internet access and would be responding to them with further clarification.
As of now, she remains locked out of her LinkedIn and Instagram accounts.
