Fountain Valley man admits bribing Santa Ana police officer to hide illegal gambling dens

A Fountain Valley man who admitted to paying a former Santa Ana police officer $128,000 to cover up four illegal casinos he ran agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy, operating an illegal gambling business and bribery in court documents filed Thursday.

Niem Ngoc Ha would have faced a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars for the charges in the indictment filed against him in April 2021. He and three people who allegedly worked for him were arrested on May 25 as the result of an investigation by a multiagency task force assigned to rein in Asian organized crime rings.

The 47-year-old Fountain Valley resident admitted he opened and operated “nets” or “slaphouses” in strip malls and private residences in Santa Ana and that violence had taken place at some of them. In one case, Ha instructed one of his underlings to find and beat up someone who had started a fight at one of his illegal businesses, according to court documents.

A shooting took place at one of the gambling dens on Nov. 6, 2020. One of its employees was struck and hospitalized with a wound to the back of his neck.

The illegal casinos could each bring in thousands of dollars in a single night, according to court documents. In order to protect them from scrutiny by law enforcement, Ha made multiple payments between June and November 2020 to former Santa Ana Police Officer Steve Lopez. On at least one occasion, Lopez was wearing his uniform and driving a marked department vehicle when he accepted cash from the defendant.

It was unclear whether the former officer was able to actually shield Ha’s businesses from the law. Lopez did notify him ahead of time when a Santa Ana police gang unit planned to shut down one of his businesses during the 2020 Labor Day weekend, according to court documents.

Lopez was terminated from the department after he pleaded guilty in April 2021 to one count of bribery, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Maria Lopez said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 5.

Ha was scheduled to return to court to formally enter a guilty plea in the coming weeks, U.S. Attorneys’ officials said in a news release Thursday. The three people who worked for him — Mindy Bui, Honganh Thi Pham and Sammy Cardona — are expected to begin trial in May.

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