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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

SHAMELESS PUTRAJAYA DID NOTHING! ‘It was the US govt that objected to Zahid’s letter backing kingpin'

 SHAMELESS PUTRAJAYA DID NOTHING! ‘It was the US govt that objected to Zahid’s letter backing kingpin'
The letter from the Home Minister, clearing the name of alleged illegal gambling kingpin Paul Phua to the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) in US, was withdrawn hours after its submission on the same day due to objection from the prosecutors based on court technicalities.
It has got nothing to do with Putrajaya objecting to the letter having been written by Home Minister Zahid Hamidi, says a source from Las Vegas to Malaysiakini.
This seems to have been further confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddn Yassin's claim yesterday that he does not know anything of the letter.
On Dec 29, Phua’s legal team from Goldstein and Russell, wrote to magistrate Peggy A Leen, to state that they were withdrawing Zahid's letter after “the Government” objected to its submission.
"Earlier today, we submitted (in ECF No 386) a letter sent by the Malaysian Home Minister to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"The Government subsequently contacted us, objecting to the introduction of the letter because the record is closed.
"In light of the Government's objection, we respectfully withdraw our prior submission," states the letter sighted by Malaysiakini.
The letter was signed by Thomas C Goldstein, Richard Schonfield and David Z Chesnoff, attorneys for Paul and Darren Phua.
‘The Government’ refers to prosecutors
According to the Malaysiakini source in Las Vegas, who has been following the case closely in his line of work, the defence lawyers were referring to the United States as “the Government”.
The letter was withdrawn by Phua’s defence after it faced some serious objection from the prosecuting lawyers because it was submitted late, said the Vegas source.
“Prosecutors said the deadline had passed for submitting evidence in the motion to suppress the evidence against the Phuas.
“The defence withdrew it from the court record after prosecutors objected to it,” the source from Vegas informed Malaysiakini.
He further said that there were no objections made from the Malaysian government.
The court transcript also does not record any objections made by Putrajaya, only that the letter was withdrawn by Phuas’ lawyers due to an objection.
Lawyers who were shown this also read “the Government” as referring to the US government which is prosecuting the Phuas on illegal gambling charges in Nevada, US.
Letter to be used as defence
The letter was alleged to have been submitted earlier by Phua’s defence to clear him of any links with the 14K triad.
This was done, to wiggle him out of entrapment charges, where the authorities had obtained a warrant to raid his villa in Caesars Palace in Vegas on July 9 last year.
The warrant was acquired after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had earlier done an undercover investigation on Phua and uncovered three villas he had been occupying at the hotel had been turned into gambling dens.
The authorities reportedly, according to court documents, had obtained the warrant after clarifying with the magistrate that Phua was indeed running an illegal betting ring as well as he was a part of the 14K triad.
This bit of information, according to the FBI notes in the case, was furnished in a letter written to them by the Royal Malaysian Police in July 2008.
“Review of the =blanked out= (hereafter referred to as FUGITIVE) case revealed a report dated on 07/16/2008 stating that =blanked out = was a fugitive wanted in the State of Nevada for felony charges pursuant to a scheme to defraud several local casinos of more than $1.2 million.
“The FUGITIVE was identified as a high ranking 14K Triad “Boss” of other known 14K Triad members in Asia.
“The same report also identified Wei Seng Phua as a 14K Triad member who travelled to the United States, and members of the 14K Triad were involved with illegal drugs, illegal gambling and money laundering,” state the FBI notes, which are part of the case where the Phuas claim entrapment.
In the raid that was done, Phua and his son Darren alongside with six others were charged for operating an illegal gambling business and transmission of wagering information.
The duo have pleaded not guilty to the crimes.
The other five who were arrested along with them have pleaded guilty and have been slapped with unsupervised probation with special conditions and fines.
The only one to have the charges against him dismissed was the son of another Malaysian citizen, Richard Yong.
According to the source, the father Richard Yong Seng Chen is apparently the owner of a casino junket company based in Macau.
The Phuas are currently out on bail and await a status hearing which is to be held coming January 22, said the US Attorney Office in an email correspondence to Malaysiakini. - M'kini

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