KUALA LUMPUR: A businessman and his wife were today charged with five counts of operating an illegal gambling den at their home, two months ago.
Liow Lian Keong, 40, and Chen Lye Kuen, 41, however, pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them before magistrate Nik Mohd Fadli Nik Azlan.
The couple were accused of using their house in Bandar Country Homes near Rawang as an illegal gambling den.
They were accused of committing the offence between 5.15pm and 6.15pm on July 6.
Lian Keong was slapped with three charges while Lye Kuen, who is a housewife, faced two charges.
The offence, under Section 4(1)(A) of the Common Gaming House Act 1953, carries a maximum RM50,000 fine or three years jail.
Deputy public prosecutor Wan Nur Iman Wan Ahmad asked the court to imposed RM30,000 and RM20,000 bail against Liow and Chen respectively.
However, counsel Muhammad Noor Izzad Nordin who represented the couple pleaded for minimum bail stating that his clients had given full cooperation during investigation.
"They have two children and need to support their aging parents," he said.
The court later set RM21,000 and RM14,000 bail against the couple, respectively, and fixed Dec 20 for mention.
It was reported that police had crippled a syndicate masterminded by a man known as 'Datuk Ken' during a special operation near Rawang.
Selangor police chief Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed said investigation revealed that the suspect was engaged in illegal activities such as online gambling, Bitcoin mining and illegal money lending business since 2014.
He said the syndicate was able to earn profit of up to RM6 million a year from gambling activities, RM800,000 a month from Bitcoin mining and RM2 million from money lending activities by charging interest of 8 per cent to 10 per cent on borrowers.
Junaidi said police had sealed 14 luxury cars, including a Lamborghini Huracan, BMW 8i, Nissan GTR and Porsche Cayman, 14 bungalows and three shophouses.
He said police also seized cash and frozen 71 bank accounts, all worth nearly RM33 million.