Gambling kingpin Paul Phua likely to walk free as US judge throws out FBI evidence
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 27 May, 2015, 3:50pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 27 May, 2015, 6:55pm
Bryan Harris [email protected]
Paul Phua is accused of running an illegal online betting operation worth millions of dollars.
A former Macau junket operator accused of running an illegal soccer World Cup gambling scheme looks set to walk free after the presiding judge in the Las Vegas trial tossed the remaining evidence on the back of government misconduct.
Prosecutors in the case against Paul Phua Wei-seng now have until Friday to decide whether they still wish to pursue the illegal gambling and conspiracy charges against the Malaysian national, who was due to stand trial on June 15.
Phua, a world-ranking poker player, was arrested in the US gambling hub in July last year following a raid by federal authorities on three luxury villas in the city’s Caesars Palace resort.
The 50-year-old from Sarawak was then charged with running an online betting operation during the soccer World Cup, which authorities alleged processed millions of dollars of bets.
However, the case swung in Phua’s favour last month when US District Judge Andrew Gordon ruled that evidence obtained during the raid on his villa was inadmissible due to errors and omissions made by agents in the search warrant affidavit.
Gordon also said that Phua had his privacy rights violated when FBI agents, posing as internet repairmen, went undercover into the residence in a bid to gather information before the raid.
Prosecutors then lodged conspiracy charges in an attempt to tie the Malaysian to the alleged activities in the other villas raided by the FBI.
Gordon’s ruling yesterday means that prosecutors cannot use any evidence obtained from any of the villas.
According to a report in the Las Vegas Review Journal, the judge said the US government attorneys did not provide enough evidence that they would have sought search warrants for the villas, regardless of the unconstitutional undercover operation.
Thomas Goldstein, one of Phua’s lawyers, told the court that the government had played “fast and loose with the facts” and committed “outrageous constitutional violations,” the Review Journal reported.
The prosecution is now left with two options: they can ask Gordon to reconsider his findings or they can bring the case to an appeal court and try to overturn his decision.
The trial grabbed headlines worldwide after it emerged that Malaysia’s Home Affairs minister wrote a letter in support of Phua to the deputy director of the FBI.
In the “private and confidential letter,” Zahid denied allegations by the bureau that Phua is a member of Hong Kong’s notorious 14K triad. He also claimed Phua was assisting the nation on issues of national security.
“Mr Phua has, on numerous occassions [sic], assisted the Government of Malaysia on projects affecting our national security and accordingly we continue to call upon him to assist us from time to time and as such we are eager for him to return to Malaysia,” Zahid wrote in the letter dated December 18.
