Chestermere crime kingpin jailed and fined $1.5 million
BY KEVIN MARTIN, POSTMEDIA NETWORK
Crime kingpin Dung Kien Luong was sentenced Tuesday to 5 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay fines of $1.5 million for tax evasion and other charges.
Luong, 53, had earlier pleaded guilty to four charges as part of a plea deal which saw several others withdrawn by the Crown.
Justice Paul Jeffrey ruled Luong had immediate access to substantial amounts of money — even though the assets weren’t in his name — and set up a payment schedule.
Jeffrey said Luong must pay $150,000 within 30 days and another $350,000 four months from now.
If those amounts are not paid in full he’ll face an additional three years on his sentence.
Defence lawyer Alain Hepner had asked for up to two years to pay the $350,000, which would likely mean Luong would already be on parole and capable of managing his finances.
The $150,000 was already in a lawyer’s trust account, so it wasn’t in issue.
“I consider Mr. Luong to have ready access to that amount of capital,” Jeffrey said in declining to delay payment.
He was also ordered to pay nearly $1 million in evaded taxes, beginning with payments starting in two years.
If those amounts aren’t paid he must serve another four years, but that will be concurrent to the three years if the earlier fines aren’t paid.
Luong had earlier pleaded guilty to tax evasion, book-making, trafficking marijuana and possession of a loaded, prohibited, semi-automatic handgun which was found under his bed at his West Chestermere Dr. residence on Dec. 7, 2010.
According to a statement of admissions made a court exhibit, he used profits from his book-making operation and the sale of drugs to loan money to people in the community at criminal interest rates — although he did not plead guilty to that charge.
It said an analysis done on the time period of December, 2009, to December, 2010, by the Calgary Integrated Proceeds of Crime unit showed Luong was engaged in book-making at the time.
“The total value of the bets placed ... with Luong from the reconstructed evidence was $3,497,005,” the statement said.
It said Luong ran a marijuana distribution network and paid his second-in-command $8,000 a month to provide drugs to distributors.
“Dung Luong was in charge of a multi-pound level marijuana distribution network,” it said.
“Money from the book-making and trafficking (was) ... available to Luong to loan to individuals in the community creating substantial revenue/income for Luong.”
At the height of a four-year investigation which including police sifting through garbage looking for evidence, Luong vehemently denied any criminal involvement in an interview with Postmedia.
“They think I’m a godfather, they think I’m a Mafia, they think I’m a drug dealer,” he said in 2011.
Luong was also ordered to forfeit other assets of a 1992 Lamborghini Diablo, a 2004 Hummer H2 and $138,000 in seized cash.
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