SEATTLE — A University Place man has pleaded guilty to charges he attempted to have some of his wife’s relatives in Vietnam killed.
Long Van Nguyen entered the plea Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to charges of conspiring to kill people in a foreign country and soliciting a crime of violence. The 46-year-old faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Robert Lasnik in January, but prosecutors have agreed to recommend no more than 14 years.
Prosecutors said Nguyen had expressed anger that his nephew had spent $100,000 of Nguyen’s money, even though Nguyen had instructed him to only spend any interest the money earned.
Six others were also on the defendant’s list, including his wife’s sister and brother.
A police officer in Vietnam and an undercover FBI agent posed as possible hit men, and Nguyen offered to pay them $5,000 to $6,000 per target before he was arrested in July 2012. At the time, Nguyen was on supervised release after serving a seven-year federal sentence for a federal money laundering and marijuana conspiracy.
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