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Alleged bank rob mastermind denies charges
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Posted on Oct 27 2004
The alleged mastermind in the City Trust Bank robbery case yesterday pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against him in federal court.
Vann Le, who was assisted by lawyer Joseph Camacho, waived the reading of the indictment and contested the charges filed against him by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charges include Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy, Hobbs Act robbery and using and carrying a firearm during crime of violence.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Alex R. Munson set Le’s trial to begin on Dec. 27. The judge placed Le under the custody of the U.S. Marshal, granting prosecutor Patrick Smith’s request to impose no bail on the defendant.
The judge, however, granted Camacho’s request to allow him to argue for Le’s bail at a later time.
Federal authorities reportedly took custody of Le Saturday at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Vietnam, after the country’s Ministry of Public Security handed over the defendant to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.
Vietnamese police arrested Le in southern Ho Chi Minh in Dec. 2003, but Le’s turnover to federal custody had to undergo an extradition process.
Le, a Vietnamese-born American national, reportedly went into hiding in Vietnam in January 2003 in the name of Bui Quang Khai with a business visa. He invested in a telephone and telecommunication equipment company in Ho Chi Minh City. On Saipan, he used to directly manage his own watersports company.
Prosecutors charged Le and co-defendants Norman Kapileo and Lionel Borja sometime in February 2003, almost a year after the April 2002 bank robbery.
Kapileo and Borja went to the Gualo Rai bank on April 12, 2002 and robbed it of some $8,649. Kapileo fired his gun before fleeing.
Kapileo and Borja are now in prison after pleading guilty to some of the charges in separate agreements with the USAO. The court had also sentenced to 33 months imprisonment one Jason Ruluked for obstructing the probe on the bank robbery and making false statements to federal agents.
