Much Respect To This Monk Who Gambled Away $263,000 of His Temple's Money At The Casino

Nola - A Buddhist monk living in Lafayette was sentenced Monday (July 25) to 30 months in prison for taking more than $263,463 from his own temple to gamble at a casino. U.S. District Judge Donald Walter handed down the penalty on Khang Nguyen Le, 36, a Vietnamese citizen who had pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Walter, whom President Ronald Reagan appointed to the Western District court, also ordered Le to pay full restitution. Le might also face deportation to Vietnam after release from prison, authorities said.

From 2010 to October 2014, Le was president, presiding monk and resident of the temple of the Vietnamese Buddhist Association of Southwest Louisiana. According to his March 17 guilty plea, he wrongfully withdrew $263,463.36 from the temple’s bank accounts between January 2013 and August 2014 to gamble at a Lake Charles casino. He withdrew the money via automated teller machines and casino tellers.

——–

You know, much respect to this monk for blazing his own trail. I don’t see anything wrong with what he did. Sure, monks are supposed to just meditate 14 hours a day and go on vision quests and weigh 89 pounds, but that’s why we don’t hear anything about monks anymore. This was the monk heel turn that we needed to get monks back into the mainstream. It’s like in that movie Keeping The Faith when Ben Stiller is the cool, hip rabbi and then everyone starts going to Jew church and he becomes the hottest thing in the Jew community. Exact same thing here, and that 100% should be his defense. This monk decided to stir it up, shake things around, and get Monk’ing hip again. $263,000 at the casino later, we’re talking about Buddhism. Job well done.

PS: They should just let monks and nuns and priests have a month a year where they can drink and gamble and fuck until their dicks fall off. We’ve seen what happens when you keep these people locked in cages, shit goes sour real quick. It made sense back in year 10 or whatever when they started religion, but with internet porn and Miller Lite and 3 card poker being around in today’s age, those religious folks gotta adjust to the times or shit like this will continue to happen.