[Peetwo]

For the interest of @oceankoto

Not directly related to MH370 but more to do with the Najib government and their strong connections to organised crime, in this case illegal betting & match fixing, also the apparent influence the Malaysians have over the US...

Watched a replay last Monday night's Four Corners program - Bad Sport - & near the end of the program there was this about billionaire bookie Paul Phua:

LINTON BESSER: Paul Phua slipped out of the country and flew to Las Vegas on board his corporate jet.


But just three weeks later he would find himself under arrest again. This time, he was a target of the FBI.

Phua didn't realise that another of his mobile setups at Caesar's Palace was under FBI surveillance.

CHRIS EATON: What Paul Phua was operating in the Las Vegas Caesar's Palace was in fact an old-fashioned wire room. He was taking, though, massive whale bets and mass- massive whale gamblers: these sorts of guys who are dealing in the millions of dollars, not the thousands.

MARTIN PURBRICK: What the FBI found was a series of large-screen TVs watching games on the World Cup, large banks of computers and monitors, laptops, mobile phones, notes regarding bets on the World Cup: ah, basically a communications centre.

LINTON BESSER: The FBI charged him and his associates with operating an illegal gambling business and they seized his files.

MARK READ: Oh, the Americans are always saying this about everyone. If I went to America, I'd be worried going to America because they'd be saying that, "Mark, well, you're a bookmaker. And if you're a bookmaker, by definition you're a racketeer and you must be a money launderer."

This is a... y-you know, you're talking about America. This is "Waspsville." (Laughs) I've been hearing this sort of stuff all my life, you know? Anyone who emerges in the marketplace and has the audacity to threaten the status quo, the establishment here: st- the catch cry straight away is: the whistleblowers, out they come. Or the dog whistle, dog whistle: "Out we come: organised crime, gangsters, racketeers." I hear it all the time.

NEIL PATERSON: Listen, um, Paul Phua is a major player. We know that he has links into some of the unregulated betting markets that operate in the Philippines.

Um, the FBI operation was able to, ah, bring out into the open some of the information that now is known around, ah, around him. And it gives us great concern: the sheer volume of money that passes hands in this area, of the organised crime links in that space as well.

LINTON BESSER: Paul Phua's son Darren and five of their associates pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of transmitting betting information.

But Paul Phua still had aces up his sleeve.

Even while Paul Phua was under house arrest and awaiting trial in Las Vegas, he called on high-powered friends for help, including Malaysia's home affairs minister, Zahid Hamidi.


From his office here, Hamidi wrote a confidential letter to the FBI saying he was keen to see Paul Phua returned to Malaysia. Incredibly, he also claimed that Phua had routinely assisted his government on matters of national security.

Paul Phua also hired two of the best lawyers money could buy and they persuaded the court that the FBI's search warrant was unconstitutional.

    
Very interesting, & where is one of Paul Phua's favourite places to gamble? - Melbourne's Crown Casino...
MTF..P2