Malaysia jails bookie for illegal soccer bets

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 (Reuters) A Malaysian court jailed a soccer bookmaker for two years and and fined him 294,000 dollar for illegally accepting bets on European soccer matches, a newspaper said today.

The 37-year-old Malaysian man, Ong Seh Sen, became the first to be convicted under the country's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism finance act, the New Straits Times said.

Ong was the mastermind behind a Kuala Lumpur-based syndicate that illegally accepted bets on football matches in the English, Italian and Spanish leagues, it said.

Arrested in 2004 after two of his runners were nabbed in a police sting, Ong was was initially charged with 75 counts of money laundering involving a total of 1.4 million ringgit.

REUTERS BJR SSC1308