The Malaysian online gambling operator targeted in last week’s grenade attack in Kuala Lumpur has presented himself for questioning by local police. Ah Hai, a 53-year-old reputed crime boss who allegedly pointed a gun at police during a routine traffic stop in August, submitted to three hours of police questioning on Monday night. No arrest has been made in the attack, which killed a nightclub car valet and injured a dozen other people. Police believe Ah Hai was the target of rival bookmakers angered by Ah Hai poaching their local agents by offering them higher commissions. The Star quoted police saying Ah Hai was part of the Gang 21 triad.
Stateside, a New England organized crime associate has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for his role in a Rhode Island sports betting operation the feds broke up in May 2011. Vincent ‘Tootsie’ Tallo will serve 16 years of probation following his prison stint, leading Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to comment that there was “nothing glamorous about selling drugs, bookmaking or prison.”
North of the border, Benedetto Manasseri has been sentenced to 26 months for heading up an Ottawa-area online sports betting ring. Manasseri, one of 21 individuals arrested in 2012 as part of Project Amethyst, was facing up to three years in stir after pleading guilty to illegal betting charges last month. Project Amethyst took down three online credit betting sites that grossed $842k between February and July 2012. Judge Hugh Fraser said there was “no other reason” for the existence of operation “other than the obvious goal of financial gain.” And the glamor. Don’t forget the glamor.
Meanwhile, convicted bookie Anatoly Golubchik (pictured) has put his New York duplex on the block for $7.85m. That’s about one-third of the sum Golubchik agreed to forfeit for his role in the Taiwanchik-Trincher Organization, the illegal sports betting and poker business the feds broke up in April 2013. Golubchik, who was sentenced to five years in prison in April of this year, apparently no longer has need of the six-bedroom, four bathroom Upper East Side haunt, which occupies two floors at 971 Madison Avenue. Golubchik paid $5m in 2011 for the property, which has sat vacant these past three years. There’s definitely nothing glamorous about that gold jacket.
