On July 6, a Macau court upheld key pieces of evidence against former casino junket king Alvin Chau, which led to his conviction on charges of running an illegal gambling operation in the city. Attorneys for Chau, sentenced in January to 18 years behind bars, claimed some of the evidence against him was inadmissible.
According to Macau Business, Judge Chan Kuong Seng dismissed the defendant’s challenge of three parts of prosecution evidence, including excerpts from a taped phone call from a separate criminal case in which Chau was not involved.
Defense attorneys also challenged the practice of reading interrogation transcripts in court when the suspects were not present, and argued that documents collected by prosecutors after the investigation phase had ended should not have been presented in court.
Chau must pay MOP15,000 (US$1,863) to the court for costs associated with his appeal. He has also been ordered to pay more than HKD8.6 billion (US$1.09 billion) in restitution to the Macau government and five gaming concessionaires in the city. As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, Chau was also ordered to sell off 36 real estate properties he owns in Macau worth a combined MOP$600 million (US$74.5 million).
Chau has appealed his 18-year sentence, but prosecutors are actually lobbying that the term be increased by three years. That action has yet to be heard by the Intermediate Court.
