Wei Seng “Paul” Phua
A federal judge in Nevada dismissed a criminal case this week against a wealthy Malaysian gambler who was arrested last year after FBI agents impersonated Internet repair technicians to get a peek at what he was doing in suites at a Las Vegas Strip resort.
Gone is the allegation that Wei Seng “Paul” Phua headed an illegal bookmaking operation that reaped USD13 million after converting high-roller villas into a worldwide sports betting hub during the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.
Phua, 51, won the return of a USD2 million cash bond and the $50 million private aircraft he had surrendered as collateral, and he immediately planned to leave Las Vegas for home, defense attorney David Chesnoff said.
“Mr. Phua’s courageous and principled stand helps to ensure personal liberty for all of us,” Chesnoff said. “He had faith in the integrity of the federal court, and we are gratified that he can go home to his family.”
Chesnoff and defense attorney Thomas Goldstein had cast the case as a cutting-edge test of the Fourth Amendment right to be free at home from governmental search and seizure.
U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden declined through a spokeswoman to comment.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon’s decision was not unexpected. Last week, the judge upheld a federal magistrate’s earlier recommendation and threw out, as the product of an illegal search, evidence collected by FBI and Nevada Gaming Control Board agents from three exclusive high-roller suites at Caesars Palace. That left little evidence for the government case.
Bogden said last week it could take several weeks to decide whether to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
To do so would invite another review of what now amounts to a stinging rebuke of investigators’ tactics and the collapse of a high-profile international investigation.
It crumbled after testimony during hearings last year showed the agents enlisted a Caesars contractor to shut off Internet service to get invited in to hotel rooms without a warrant so they could collect enough evidence to get a federal magistrate to approve search warrants.
The agents failed to tell the magistrate such a ruse had been used. In Las Vegas, the government said that Phua had several people including his son convert several hotel suites to betting boiler rooms crammed with computers, Internet routers and cellphones.
Eight people were arrested in July, and Phua was initially charged with operating an illegal gambling business and transmission of wagering information. Prosecutors last month added a conspiracy count that has now also been dismissed.
Phua’s son, Darren Wai Kit Phua, and five Chinese citizens pleaded guilty to lesser charges, forfeited hundreds of thousands of dollars and returned to Asia under plea deals banning them from travel to the U.S. for five years. Charges against one defendant were dismissed. Ken Ritter, Las Vegas, AP
Arrested previously in Macau
The Las Vegas operation began shortly after Phua left Macau, where he had been arrested on June 18 and posted bail on similar allegations of illegal wagering on World Cup football games. Following his arrest in Macau, Phua was released on bail and flew to Las Vegas in his private jet, where he and his associates are alleged to have resumed their illegal gambling at Caesars Palace. According to World Series of Poker press material, Phua is “a big league investment banker from China who is one of the driving forces behind the nosebleed cash games in Macau.”
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