The owner of Assaggio restaurants in Hawaii admitted in federal court Thursday that he laundered more than $1 million of illegal Internet gambling proceeds through his restaurants.
Thomas Ky, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering and agreed to forfeit to the government $1,336,500, the amount of money he laundered for operators of an illegal Internet gambling operation between 2009 and 2012. He faces a maximum 20-year prison term and a fine twice the value of the amount of money he laundered when he is sentenced in May.
Ky’s lawyer, Stephen Pingree, told U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson that the government agreed to give his client time to come up with forfeiture money before he is sentenced.
According to state business records, Ky is the listed agent for Assaggio Ala Moana, Assaggio Hawaii Kai, Assaggio Kapolei, Assaggio Mililani and Assaggio Square in Kahala.
Twenty-one people have already pleaded guilty for their involvement in the gambling operation, including the admitted head bookie, Felix Gee Won Tom. Only one among them, Honolulu car salesman Terrence Ching, has been sentenced.
U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright sentenced Ching, 40, to three years of probation in August and fined him $6,000 for assisting his clients with placing bets online and for failing to declare his bookie income on his tax return. Seabright also ordered Ching to pay the Internal Revenue Service $25,173 in taxes owed and ordered the forfeiture of firearms, jewelry and hundreds of thousands of dollars federal authorities seized from Ching’s home and bank account.
In addition to assisting clients with placing bets, Tom, 39, and four others also pleaded guilty to laundering money through Ky. The others are Dean Horie, Ponciano Ioane Erice, Vietanh Tran and Anh Phuong Lam.
Tom, Horie, Erice and Lam admitted setting up a phony cleaning business for which Ky paid with the gambling proceeds they gave him. Tran admitted receiving his gambling proceeds back from Ky in payroll checks.
Ky said Thursday that he knew Tom and another person, who has yet to be charged, were running a gambling business. He said he laundered their money because "they wanted to make it look legitimate."
Federal prosecutor Larry Butrick said Thursday that the government has all the canceled checks Ky wrote to the phony cleaning businesses as well as the phony companies’ tax returns, wiretap evidence and conversations Tom secretly recorded between himself and Ky. Had Ky opted for a trial, the government would also have the testimonies of the other defendants who have already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate, Butrick said.
