Wei Seng “Paul” Phua walks into federal court in Las Vegas
Five people accused of operating an illegal World Cup gambling business out of luxury villas at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas have agreed to a plea deal, leaving the alleged ringleader, high-stakes poker player Wei Seng “Paul” Phua, and his son as the sole defendants in the case.
Phua, his son and six individuals from Malaysia and China were arrested and charged in July when FBI agents busted into the USD25,000-a-night villas as the occupants were watching the World Cup semifinal between and the Netherlands and Argentina. Phua and his son have denied the charges.
Four men and one woman agreed to plead to one count each of illegally transmitting wagering information and will forfeit about $1 million, according to documents filed in federal court in Las Vegas. Three entered their pleas and were sentenced in court yesterday. The remaining two are scheduled to appear today.
Hui Tang, the general manager of a soccer club in Shenzhen, China, is among the five who are pleading. Under the plea agreement, Tang admits that he and the others operated an illegal sports gambling business, according to the filings. He has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine as well as $250,000 in forfeiture.
“Tang is a Chinese businessman with a wife and three children,” according to his lawyer’s request to be sentenced at the time of his plea hearing. “Tang desires to plead guilty and leave the United States so that he can return to China and take care of his family.”
The three people who entered guilty pleas today were Yan Zhang, Yung Keung Fan and Herman Chung Sang Yeung, all of Hong Kong. They were sentenced to five years’ probation during which they aren’t allowed to enter the U.S., a $100,000 fine and $125,000 forfeiture each. The U.S. will drop charges against an eighth person, according to court filings.
Phua, a Malaysian citizen and a regular at million-dollar poker games, and the others were arrested after technicians at Caesars Palace discovered a villa occupied by his group was set up as a gambling hub, with banks of computers and monitors and three TVs switched to World Cup games. Phua had been arrested in Macau a month earlier for allegedly operating an illegal sports gambling business there (see box).
Phua and his group were using SBOBet and IBCBet sports- betting websites, neither of which is licensed to operate in Nevada, to monitor odds and place wagers, prosecutors said. At the time of his arrest in July, Darren Phua told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that his father owned IBCBet.
The websites are the two biggest online sports-betting commission businesses in the world, according to Chris Eaton, former head of security at FIFA, soccer’s governing body. Eaton, now a director at the Doha-based International Centre for Sport Security, has estimated that each company turns over about $2 billion a week.
Phua and his son denied running an illegal gambling operation in Las Vegas and asked a judge to toss evidence collected by FBI agents masquerading as Internet-support technicians. The agents cut the villas’ network connection to gain entry and look around without a search warrant. Agents later obtained a warrant based in part on what they observed during initial entries, according to court documents.
Seng Chen “Richard” Yong, a 57-year-old Malaysian businessman who organizes trips to bring high-rollers to the VIP rooms of casinos in Macau and elsewhere, is among those who have agreed to plead guilty. Yong planned the group’s trip to Caesars Palace, where he and Phua negotiated a $60 million credit, according to papers filed in court. Bloomberg
Payment ‘under the table’ in Macau
According to court documents filed last month by US federal prosecutors and cited by the South China Morning Post, Paul Phua paid a police officer in Macau as much as HKD5 million shortly after his arrest in the world’s richest gaming destination in June. The former Macau casino junket operator denied accusations the he made a multimillion-dollar “under the table” payment to secure his release from custody. SCMP cites phone transcripts lodged by prosecutors that appear to show Phua’s son Darren, 23, telling a friend via instant messaging that an “under the table” payment of between HK$4 million and HK$5 million would secure his father’s release. According to the transcribed message in the court document, Phua’s son tells another man: “We just received a call from Macau saying that the one who arrested Paul is a friend of Paul and they are negotiating now. Hopefully they just want money.”
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