Paul Phua last man standing in illegal Las Vegas gaming racket case

Former Macau casino junket operator and gambling kingpin Paul Phua Wei-seng yesterday became the last man standing against allegations by United States federal agents that he was part of a criminal enterprise behind a multi-million-dollar illegal online gaming racket run out of a plush Las Vegas hotel.

Phua, 51, - who runs two companies in Hong Kong - yesterday saw his son Darren handed five years of unsupervised probation by a United States court in return for a guilty plea to a lesser misdemeanour charge by the 23-year-old. This follows plea bargain deals made by six other co-defendants that leave the elder Phua as the only defendant left in the case.

US District Judge Andrew Gordon sentenced Darren Phua to probation on condition he stay out of the United States, fined him US$100,000 and ordered him to forfeit US$125,000 and electronic devices seized in the FBI raids, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Should his father be acquitted, however, the world champion poker player would be released into an uncertain future, with his only apparent refuge the tiny Balkan state of Montenegro where he enjoys high-level political and business ties and recently gained citizenship. He is not welcome in Macau which deported him amid allegations he was involved in an illegal gambling operation there and his home nation Malaysia does not allow dual citizenship.

Phua, who has reported links to top-level figures in the Malaysian government, was arrested in July last year following an FBI raid on villas in Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas.

His trial is slated for April 14, although a magistrate's recent recommendation that the bulk of the evidence against him be thrown out has improved his odds of walking free.

Prosecutors have admitted it would be difficult to prove the case without the glut of evidence seized in a police raid that the judge deemed unconstitutional.