On Thursday, a magistrate in federal court denied the motion of businessman/poker player Paul Phua and his son, Darren, which would have allowed them to return to the poker tables while they await the illegal gambling case against them in the federal system.
Magistrate Judge Bill Hoffman said in his decision that neither Phua presented any new evidence to the court that would justify the removal of the ban placed on the duo when they were arrested in July 2014. Prosecutors in the case had requested that the ban remain in place because of the seriousness of the charges against the Phuas. Additionally, Judge Hoffman stated that the Phuas were still “a danger to the community, especially the casinos” in rendering his decision.
The Phuas were charges with being the ringleaders of a multi-million dollar betting ring that ran in conjunction with the 2014 World Cup that was contested in Brazil. The gambling ring allegedly stretched around the world from the United States to Asia, allegedly pulling in around $13 million in profits from the betting. Following their arrest, the Phuas bail was set at $2.5 million, which was paid off by poker professional Phil Ivey and another unnamed poker pro.
The case apparently has some in the legal community questioning the tactics that federal agents used in garnering evidence for the case. After surveillance of a villa at Caesars Palace, federal agents arranged for an “internet outage” at the villa allegedly used by the Phuas to conduct the gambling operation. Following calls from the Phuas for a technician to fix the problem, federal agents posed as computer repairman and garnered evidence from the visit. A few days following this “repair effort,” Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided the villa and booked the Phuas on the gambling charges.
The defense attorneys for the Phuas have raged about the process that the feds used in this effort. Calling it a “warrantless search,” the attorneys contend that the Phuas’ constitutional rights were violated in the commission of the repair effort. The defense attorneys also point out that the FBI failed to bring up the “repairman” trick to the judge who issued the search warrant; if the FBI had done that, there is a significant chance that the judge would have denied the search warrant and the FBI would not have been able to conduct the raid or the arrests. Furthermore, Phua contends that no one in the arrest was read their Miranda rights, making inadmissible any statements that were made by those charged.
The FBI has also tried to establish links between the senior Phua and an Asian crime syndicate to discredit him further. In December, the Malaysia Minister of Home Affairs, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, sent a letter to Deputy FBI Director Mark Giuliano that categorically denied the claims by the FBI that Phua is a member of the Hong Kong crime syndicate 14K Triad. In not only denying the assertions of the FBI about Phua’s criminal connections, the Malaysian official stated that Phua actually helped out the Malaysian government in matters of national security.
Defense attorneys are looking to have the case thrown out or much of the evidence gathered in the raid ruled as inadmissible. Another magistrate judge has yet to make his decision regarding those motions.
Working against the Phuas in this case is the actions of others who were charged alongside them from the July 2014 raid. Five other defendants from Malaysia and China pled guilty in December 2014 to gambling charges and were handed out five years of probation, provided that those charged did not return to the United States for that five year time period. A sixth person charged in the case saw their offenses dismissed.
The senior Phua has actually had a fairly successful career on the Super High Roller circuit. In 2012, the businessman captured the title at the Aspers £100,000 Super High Roller event in London, taking home a £1 million prize. The next year, Phua would finish in third place at the World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific $50,000 High Roller event in Melbourne. His last cash came in 2014 at the European Poker Tour’s €100,000 Super High Roller event, where Phua earned €385,000. All totaled, Phua has earned over $2.8 million from his exploits on the High Roller circuit.
