Bodog Poker crew arrested at Saigon spa

Several individuals working with Bodog.com on a documentary were arrested in Saigon Thursday for violating "Vietnam espionage laws".

Among those taken into Police custody were Fawn Seeton,  who is
the assistant to founder Calvin Ayre, and some cameramen.  Ayre himself was not present during the arrests.  Details were not immediately available, however, Gambling911.com has learned of Seeton's release late last night.

Ayre and his crew have been filming a documentary on bear bile farming, which is believed to be critical of the Vietnamese government.  Close to 10,000 bears in China, Korea and Vietnam are being locked in tiny "crush cages" and their bile is extracted from their bladders. It is an incredibly painful procedure - the twice-daily extractions are so intense they cause some bears to chew their own limbs in attempts to be freed from the pain.

The arrest also had nothing to do with online gambling.  The online gambling community has been on edge ever since the arrest of BetonSports.com CEO in Fort Worth, Texas.  CEO David Carruthers, a British national, was changing flights when U.S. law enforcement took him into custody for charges ranging from money laundering to tax evasion.  An indictment was unsealed that next day against nearly a dozen other BetonSports officials.  That company immediately shut down and Carruthers remains under house arrest awaiting trial in St. Louis.

Ayre himself has maintained a much lower profile since the charges were lodged against BetonSports officials with his travels limited to outside the United States. 

This is not the first time Seeton has had a brush with the law outside the U.S. or Canada. 

Fawn Seeton, an animal lover, is photographed here holding "Mitzy" during one of many events she orchestrates on behalf of Bodog.com. 

Vietnam's use of espionage charges against peaceful dissidents is widely criticized for violating Vietnam's international human rights obligations.  Vietnam has signed UN treaties protecting the right to free expression while locking up citizens - and "noncitizens" - using the Internet to express their views.  Seeton was also reported to have become belligerent with Vietnamese authorities. 

In the past, Human Rights Watch condemned the arrest of noted physician Dr. Nguyen Dan Que on March 17, 2003 outside his home in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the Vietnamese foreign ministry, Dr. Que will be prosecuted under Article 80 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code for sending information critical of the Vietnamese government via the Internet. Article 80 covers crimes of espionage and carries a sentence ranging from twelve years to the death penalty. Officials claim he was arrested at an Internet café, though his family disputes this claim. Police searched his house and confiscated his laptop computer and written essays.

Dr. Que, a well-known democracy and human rights advocate, was released as part of a prisoner amnesty in 1998 while serving a 20-year prison sentence. Even upon his release, he has remained under heavy surveillance and has been prohibited from resuming his medical practice as an endocrinologist. His family has had no access to him since his arrest on March 17.

Last year, Human Rights Watch honored him with Hellman/Hammett grant, an award recognizing repressed writers worldwide. 

Other dissidents in Vietnam have been detained in recent months and given harsh sentences, many of them for using the Internet to express their views. Last December, Nguyen Khac Toan was sent to prison for twelve years on charges of espionage. An appeal of his sentence is set to be heard on April 2.

Pham Que Duong was arrested on December 28, 2002 and indicted under Article 80, but has not yet been put on trial. He is 71 years old and a former colonel in the People's Liberation Army who quit the Communist Party and became a democracy activist; his family is not allowed to provide him urgently needed food and medicine in prison.

Last October, Li Chi Quang was arrested in an Internet café in Hanoi while sending an email message to a democracy advocate abroad. He received a four-year sentence on charges of disseminating propaganda against the state.

Pham Hong Son was arrested in March 2002 and charged with espionage under Article 80. His crime was to have translated an article on democracy from the U.S. Embassy website, which he sent to some of his friends and senior Vietnamese officials. The translation was later posted on the Internet.

Vietnam is currently one of 53 members of the UN Commission on Human Rights. It has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which, under Article 19, protects the right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, or through any other media of his choice."

Vietnam's Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dao Viet Trung, spoke at the Commission in Geneva on March 19 and specifically referred to Hanoi's commitment to the ICCPR. "Under the Constitution, laws and policies of the State of Vietnam, human rights in all their aspects are guaranteed," he declared. "Our goal has always been to ensure the better realization of the rights and welfare of the people." Human Rights Watch urged UN delegates, in their speeches and public comments, to call for an immediate end to the wave of recent arrests.

More recently Bodog.com has found itself front and center to a high profile matter involving 2006 World Series of Poker winner, Jamie Gold.

Crispin Leyser, a British-born television development executive, asserted in the suit that the men had agreed to share a seat at the tournament, and Gold owes him $6 million (half of the $12 million won).

According to the suit, Leyser, who lives in Los Angeles, and Gold met in Las Vegas in July, weeks before the tournament began, and bonded over their mutual interest in poker and television. Gold told Leyser that the Internet gambling site Bodog.com had agreed to pay for a $10,000 seat in the tournament for him if he could produce celebrities to wear the company's gear in the tournament.

Although Gold worked as a talent agent before becoming a producer and claims James Gandolfini, Lucy Liu and Felicity Huffman as former clients in his online bio, he turned to Leyser for help, according to the suit.

Leyser arranged for Matthew Lillard, an actor best known for playing Shaggy in the "Scooby Doo" movies, and Dax Shepard, a comedian who has appeared on the MTV show "Punk'd," to wear Bodog apparel. In return, the suit alleges, Gold promised to share his winnings.

In a statement, Bodog acknowledged that Gold brought celebrities to the tournament, but said, "We are unaware of any side deal he may have made in obtaining these celebrities."

Bodog founder, Calvin Ayre, has become a pseudo celebrity himself in past months, appearing on the cover of Forbes hot selling "Billionaire" issue and Ayre was named one of People Magazine's "Most Eligible Bachelors".

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Alejandro Botticelli, www.gambling911.com

Originally published September 1, 2006 11:05 am EDT