SJM’s Alan Ho appeals 8-year prison sentence: report
Alan Ho Yau Lun – a nephew of gaming tycoon Stanley Ho Hung Sun – has filed a case to Macau’s Court of Final Appeal to overturn an eight-year prison sentence imposed on him, reported on Thursday the Portuguese-language channel of public broadcaster Radio Macau.
Alan Ho had been sentenced in late November by the city’s Court of Second Instance to eight years in prison for setting up and heading an organised criminal group at the city’s Hotel Lisboa and for 58 counts of “exploitation of prostitution” at the venue. At the time of his arrest, he was identified as a director of subsidiaries of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd.
Alan Ho – at the time of his arrest a senior executive at Hotel Lisboa (pictured) – had been sentenced in 2016 to 13 months in prison for one offence of exploitation of prostitution said to have been committed at that hotel venue. At the time he was however acquitted by the court of the crime of forming or participating in a “secret association or society” – normally understood in Macau to be a reference to involvement in Chinese criminal gangs commonly known as triads – for the purposes of exploitation of prostitution at Hotel Lisboa.
The November decision by the Court of Second Instance followed an appeal by Macau’s Public Prosecutions Office.
The defendant’s lawyers told Radio Macau that they did not agree with the Court of Second Instance’s conviction regarding Alan Ho’s association with organised criminal groups. In the appeal to the city’s top court, the lawyers are seeking a straight acquittal of Alan Ho, reported the media outlet.
Alan Ho and other senior executives of Hotel Lisboa were among those arrested in January 2015 on suspicion of allowing prostitution at the property. The police estimated in a statement following the arrests that more than MOP400 million (US$50 million) had changed hands in the form of fees.
Other five senior executives of Hotel Lisboa involved in the case also had their sentences increased by the Court of Second Instance. It was not clear in the report if the other defendants had also filed an appeal against the court’s November sentence.
Hotel Lisboa is owned by Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau SA (STDM), a firm founded by Stanley Ho. STDM controls around 54.1 percent of Macau-based gaming operator SJM Holdings. SJM Holdings manages the casino in the Lisboa complex.
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