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Dorchester man pleads guilty to role in gambling-debt kidnapping and beating

Kim Nguyen, 25, pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to kidnapping, conspiracy to collect extensions of credit by extortionate means, and operating an illegal gambling business for his role in a Dorchester gambling ring whose members kidnapped and beat a man who'd fallen behind in paying his losses, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

Nguyen will be sentenced on Jan. 10. In May, another ring member, Quang Li, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his part in the kidnapping and beating. Another member, Vinh Huynh, 37, pleaded guilty in December and is awaiting sentencing.

According to an affidavit by an FBI agent who investigated the case (10.8M PDF), the men kidnapped the victim on Nov. 14, 2016 because he allegedly owed Huynh $40,000 for losses on bets on sporting events. They took his wallet, phone and passport and drove him to the Mather School, where Huynh and Li held his arms as other men hit him in the stomach, head and back. They then drove him to his house and tossed him out of the car, after demanding he pay at least $10,000 by the next day or else.

The man went to the FBI, which agreed to give him money with which to pay off some of the debts as the bureau collected evidence against the men, the affidavit continues. The victim was not killed the next day, after he agreed to pay the $10,000 within three days - which the men then agreed to put off again. Finally, the victim handed $1,000 in FBI money to Le and then began payments of up to $1,000 at a time over the next several months, during which the FBI listened in as the men exchanged curse-laden threats against the victim and war stories of life as young troublemakers, such as the times when they used to push women down to grab their purses as they flew out of the victim's hands - except that one time when the woman fell, but kept a firm grasp on her purse.

A fourth man, Ban Tran, 26, is scheduled to plead guilty on Oct. 31 to a single charge of running an illegal gambling business, the US Attorney's office reports.

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Comments

I am here for the Departed sequel, this time set in the Dorchester Vietnamese community.

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More like a certain Clint Eastwood movie.

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The Departed is actually a remake of a Hong Kong movie and there is 2 and 3 already made.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infernal_Affairs

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However, the sequel part implies that this movie, call it 'Departed II', would be also be set in Boston, see?

The only snag is that the only major character who survives the first one (spoiler alert) is Mark Wahlburg's character and I think he's a bad fit for a movie about the Vietnamese community in Dot.

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Marky Mark could play the lead in the true story about Bac Guai - which means white devil in chinese - about a white guy who became head of Boston’s Chinese mafia. No remake needed.

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Bac Guai was a peasant.

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But why would this guy let the bettor run up a $40K tab?

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But the feds are going to try to get their money back from Nguyen, Huynh, Tran, and Li, right?

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Why am I paying for this guy's gambling debts? The hell with him, I lose enough of my own money.

Of course, if this were legal, he wouldn't have had to have run to the FBI in the first place. Once again, friends, government made it worse.

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They made it worse by getting all the evidence they needed to put these folks away? I suppose it would be better to do away with evidence-based convictions altogether. And trials, too; those cost the State some money, I've heard.

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If bookmaking wasn't a crime in the first place. I didn't ask my representatives to criminalize that. Did you?

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They wouldn't have gathered evidence of a kidnapping a severe beating if bookmaking was legal? Good to know.

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The poor sap could have gone to a storefront. You know, like the ones in London. But, yeah, that's not a city to be emulated or anything.

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If he was aiming to place a $40,000 bet and didn’t have $40,000, he still might have ended up dealing with the kind of people who would beat the shit out of you in the playground of the Mather School, even if he lived in New Jersey, where sports wagering is legal.

You get your Mega Millions tickets yet?

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What has six balls and screws you twice a week?

The Massachusetts State Lottery.

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