Alvin Chau Appeals His Case to Reduce 18-Year Prison Sentence

Macau casino tycoon Alvin Chau (周焯華) toppled from his “junket king” position after being sentenced to 18 years in prison and fined more than 7.2 billion Chinese yuan for organized crimes and illegal cross-border gambling activities on January 18. Despite the conviction, his wife Heidi Chan (陳慧玲) and family refused to accept it and sought to appeal.

In February, Heidi officially filed an appeal to the Intermediate People’s Court. In response, the Macau Court of First Instance expressed that all evidence has already been presented and is aware an appeal has been filed. However, the time and date for the second round of court hearings remain unconfirmed. In the meantime, Alvin will still be serving his sentence.

According to sources, Alvin’s wife and family have no issues with the fine amount, but are disagreeing with the 18 years of jail sentence. Although there are high chances that Alvin’s sentence would be reduced as his family are well-prepared and have all the power and resources in the legal fight, it would admittedly be a tough journey since the decision is well-supported by hard evidence.

Alvin was initially charged on 183 counts of criminal activities. If it were not for his team in fighting off some of the charges and reducing it to 162 counts, his prison sentence could have been much longer.

Source: [1]