Charges against Paul Phua Dismissed

The legal ordeal that's been lasting for nearly a year now has finally come to a conclusion. Paul Phua, the last remaining defendant in the illegal World Cup betting case walked out of the Las Vegas courtroom a free man yesterday, after the federal judge dismissed all charges against the Malaysian businessman .

Upon the dismissal, Phua received back the $2 million cash bond, as well as his private jet worth $50 million. According to his lawyer, David Chasnoff, Phua will be looking to leave Las Vegas as soon as possible.

The judge's decision hardly comes as a surprise in light of recent Phua's judicial triumphs. First, his lawyers were able to get the evidence found in the villa where the alleged betting took place listed as inadmissible and then they got the verdict that the FBI broke his constitutional rights. As the prosecution was not able to get these rulings overturned, the case against the Malaysian looked really slim.

In the last attempt to salvage the failing case, the U.S. Attorney office tried to charge Paul Phua with the conspiracy, but these charges had no real standing either it seems and Judge Andrew Gordon decided that the case does not have a proper legal standing to warrant a trial.

Phua's defense team, Chesnoff - Goldstein duo, were very pleased with the decision. Goldstein, an expert in constitutional law reiterated that his client wouldn't take a plea bargain and he stayed to defend himself, not only because he was innocent, but also because the misconduct of the government made the entire ordeal even more unjust.

It appears that this high profile case, that involved not only a number of well known people from the high stakes gambling circles, where Phua has many friends, but also attracted international attention, is finally over.

Dismissal of charges means Paul Phua is a free man, despite of allegations of illegal gambling and efforts of the prosecution to connect him to the high level Asian crime syndicate. The latter allegations never really had any tangible ground, but prosecutors ran with them all the way, repeating them several times during the preliminary hearings.

Instead of his trial, that was supposed to start in June, we will likely be seeing Phua back at the tables soon. Dismissal of charges also means that he is free to play poker in the casinos again. The decision to not allow Phua in the casinos during the hearings was made after his arrest and although he appealed this ruling, the judge would not oblige.

Phua is no doubt happy to pull this whole thing behind him and go back home to his family for a while at least.

Photo. Yahoo News