Shrimp Boy and the Senator

[hskwarrior]

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-cou...cross-examined

[hskwarrior]

I've been following the news constantly since court started. Nowhere in the whole trial so far did the prosecution offer up evidence that proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Shrimp Boy was guilty.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/shrimp-boy...ing-arguments/

[hskwarrior]

I still have your back dai goh......we'll be with you when you appeal too..

free shrimp boy chow!!!!!

[mickey]

Greetings,

What is Chinatown's response to all of this?

mickey

[GeneChing]

...going vintage.

Sorry to hear this, hskwarrior. We have appreciated your candor on this forum throughout the trial.

Chow trial political fallout: Looking back at the ‘Shrimp Boy’ saga


Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow. (Jen Siska/Special to S.F. Examiner)
By Jonah Owen Lamb on January 10, 2016 1:00 am

On Friday, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, who has a shaved head and a dark pencil moustache, greeted his legal team with handshakes and an embrace in the case of lead attorney Tony Serra.

This was minutes before the jury’s verdict was read to a packed court.

Chow was found guilty on all counts, ending one chapter in the case that began in March 2014, with federal raids that detained more than 20 people including former State Sen. Leland Yee and Chow.

“This has been a long trial,” Judge Charles Breyer said after reading the verdict.

That wasn’t the half of it.

The case was centered on an investigation launched by the FBI, which infiltrated the organization Chow headed: the Ghee Kung Tong. But from the start, the Yee’s arrest gave the case political dimensions that only grew as it dragged on.

The trial, which didn’t begin until November 2015, was preceded by everything from allegations that Mayor Ed Lee, in a pay-to-play scheme, took money from undercover FBI agents in their wide-netted investigation, to allegations of wrongdoing hurled at San Francisco’s black leaders and a prosecutor in Alameda County, among others.

Case filings showed that the FBI’s investigation spread from Chow to Yee and up the political food chain to Lee.

From the start of the case, Judge Breyer attempted to keep the names of people caught up in the investigation from the public when he granted a gag order in the case.

Filings alleged that Lee’s underlings laundered campaign funds from an undercover FBI agent. They also alleged that Sharmin Bock, who ran for district attorney in 2011, also laundered campaign funds. She was later cleared.

It seemed that few were left out of the filings, which were often transcripts of the wires being used by FBI agents. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana was even approached at one point.

Amos Brown, the head of The City’s NAACP, was alleged in the wiretaps to have taken free services from city officials on his house, and San Francisco Board of Supervisor President London Breed was alleged to have taken free gift cards from a political insider.

All denied the allegations.

Then there was the investigation itself, which involved several undercover FBI agents, one claiming to be an East Coast mafioso. Another undercover agent was taken off the case for financial misconduct.

Additionally, a San Francisco Sheriff’s deputy was investigated for his relationship with one of the case’s defendants. That investigation is pending.

The trial, itself, also metamorphosed over time.

Before Chow’s trial, which has been separated from the other defendants, Yee and former school board president Keith Jackson pleaded guilty. Then, right before Chow’s trial opened, murder and murder conspiracy charges were tacked onto Chow’s case.

Chow, who has said he plans to appeal Friday’s ruling, is set for sentencing on March 23.

Political players in the case

Leland Yee: Former State Sen. who was arrested along with Chow in 2014 and faced gun-running and racketeering charges, pleaded guilty to one racketeering charge last July as part of a plea deal. He was alleged to have traded political favors for campaign donations. Yee was California’s first Chinese American state senator.

Keith Jackson: A former school board president, and political consultant for Yee, Jackson introduced Yee to Chow who requested and received recognition from the state for his community work. Jackson pleaded guilty to racketeering along with his son Brandon Jackson and Marlon Sullivan.

Raymond Chow: AKA “Shrimp Boy,” Chow was born in China and came to San Francisco as a child. Chow, 56, was convicted of ordering the death of two rivals and for his alleged leadership of a Chinatown-based criminal gang. He is a self described former gangster who says he turned his life around after being released from prison in 2003 after testifying for federal authorities. Chow survived a famously bloody Chinatown gang war shooting called the Golden Dragon Massacre in 1977. In 1995 he was convicted of gun-related charges and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison. In 2006 he became the dragon head of the Ghee Kung Tong, a Chinatown fraternal organization. The FBI says the organization has two faces: one criminal the other legitimate.

Chow has been under the watchful eye of the FBI since his release, and was the subject of a year’s long investigation

London Breed: In the case of the Board of Supervisors President, according to the filing, Derf Butler, a politically connected businessman who worked for Yee with Jackson, told an FBI source that he “pays Supervisor Breed with untraceable debit cards for clothing and trips in exchange for advantages on contracts in San Francisco.”

Amos Brown: The head of The City’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Brown was named in filings which alleged his house was fixed in exchange for some unsaid favor from former Housing Authority head Henry Alvarez. He denied the allegation.

Sharmin Bock: A former district attorney candidate and Alameda County prosecutor was put on administrative leave after allegations arose from the Chow case that she committed campaign financing fraud. She was later cleared of such allegations by her employer and put back to work.

Sululagi Palega: Nearly 21 years after his son was shot and killed, court filings from the attorneys of Chow alleging Palega Sr. sold a gun to an undercover FBI agent and promised to sell more guns in the future. Palega is the manager of the Muni Transit Assistance Program for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

Ed Lee: Lee’s name has swirled around the case since when early on stories emerged that indicated he took funds from undercover FBI agents. While he skirted any direct roll in the case and was never indicted, the Mayor’s campaign has denied any wrongdoing in the campaign donation allegations.

Zula Jones: Retired Human Rights Commission Employee and long-time Lee alley, Jones was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing how to illegally break up campaign donations over the $500 limit. “You got to pay to play here,” she said, according to the filings.

Nazly Mohajer: A former Human Rights Commissioner and Lee campaign was caught on FBI wiretaps working with Jones to break up large campaign donations.

[GeneChing]

Here's SF gates coverage of the verdict.

Raymond ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow found guilty
By Bob Egelko and Steve Rubenstein Updated 7:42 pm, Friday, January 8, 2016


In this image provided by Jen Siska, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, is seen posing for a portrait in San Francisco in July 2007. Investigators say Chow is the leader of one of the most powerful Asian gangs in North America. Chow's gang is said to have lured state Sen. Leland Yee into its clutches through money and campaign contributions in exchange for legislative help, as Yee sought to build his campaign coffers to run for California secretary of state. Yee and Chow were both arraigned on federal gun and corruption charges on Wednesday, March 26, 2014. Photo: Jen Siska, Associated Press

Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow said he was a changed man after his last prison sentence for racketeering in Chinatown more than a decade ago. But jurors heard an undercover FBI agent, backed by tape recordings, describe paying Chow for illegal transactions with his underlings. And they heard former cohorts saying Chow had ordered two murders.
On Friday, after 2½ days of deliberations, the federal court jury in San Francisco found Chow guilty on all charges: conspiracy to operate a century-old community organization as a racketeering enterprise, murdering its previous leader, conspiring to try to murder another rival, five counts of dealing in stolen liquor and cigarettes, and 154 counts of money-laundering.
It was vindication for a five-year undercover federal operation that had already netted another big fish, former state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, one of 28 defendants indicted along with Chow in 2014.
Agents posing as shady campaign contributors contacted Yee through Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board president who had ties to Chow’s organization. In July, Yee and Jackson pleaded guilty to racketeering and admitted that the legislator, with Jackson’s help, had accepted bribes in exchange for promises of political favors and illegally importing firearms. Their sentencing is scheduled Feb. 10.
Chow, 56, is to be sentenced March 23, and faces a mandatory life term in prison for Leung’s murder. His lawyers said he would appeal.
“I put the blame on jurors accepting the word of snitches with no integrity and no credibility,” defense attorney J. Tony Serra told reporters, referring to five co-defendants who reached plea agreements with prosecutors to testify against Chow. “This is snitch heaven. We feel disgusted.”
‘He was not unnerved’
He said Chow remained calm after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer read the verdicts and polled the 12 jurors, who unanimously confirmed them. “He smiled ... he was almost Buddhistically accepting,” Serra said. “He was not unnerved.”
David Johnson, chief of the FBI office in San Francisco, said in a statement that the verdict “represents a just and final end to Mr. Chow’s long-running and deadly criminal career.”
Jurors declined to speak to a reporter before leaving the courthouse.
The jury evidently credited the testimony of undercover agents led by “Dave Jordan,” the alias used by an agent, who posed as an East Coast businessman with mob ties and as a devoted admirer of Chow, during three years of secretly recorded conversations. Other clandestine recordings, in which Chow appeared to express hostility to rivals Allen Leung and Jim Tat Kong, bolstered his co-defendants’ testimony that he had ordered their murders,
“If you have tapes that are perfectly consistent with informant testimony, then juries convict a great deal of the time,” said Robert Weisberg, a Stanford law professor and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. He said he was not surprised by the verdict and expects it to be upheld on appeal.
The investigation focused on the inner workings of the Ghee Kung Tong, a long-established Chinatown “brotherhood” that prosecutors said had become a front for crime and corruption under Chow’s direction.
Chow became the tong’s leader after Leung was shot to death in February 2006 by a still-unidentified gunman at Leung’s import-export business in Chinatown.
A self-described gangster for much of his life, Chow was imprisoned in 1993 for racketeering and won early release a decade later for testifying against a gang leader. He testified last month that he had reflected on his past during his time in prison and promised himself, while meditating on a beach after his release, to live a crime-free life.
He began counseling troubled youths in minority communities and later won praise from the likes of Mayor Ed Lee and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. But prosecutors said Chow all the while was secretly plotting to take over the Ghee Kung Tong and bringing in longtime followers to run a criminal organization.
Murder charges added
Prosecutors initially charged Chow with racketeering. The murder charges were added in October after prosecutors secured guilty pleas from two co-defendants who agreed to testify in exchange for possible reductions in their sentences. One man, Kongphat Chanthavong, said he heard Chow order Leung’s murder during a feud between the two men over a loan Chow wanted from the organization.
Chow was also implicated by the alleged driver of the getaway car. In addition, jurors heard a secretly recorded conversation in which Chow supposedly told the undercover agent in 2013 that he had once advised Leung that anyone who messed around with him, or his investments, would be “gone.”
Chow, who listened to the same recording, disputed the prosecution’s transcript and said he hadn’t referred to Leung. Defense lawyers questioned the truthfulness of the prosecution witnesses, telling the jury they were convicted criminals and liars who had been allowed to meet in jail and work on their stories.
The other homicide charge involved Kong, a onetime rival in an affiliated organization, the Hop Sing Tong, who was shot to death in Mendocino County in 2013. Andy Li, one of the co-defendants who pleaded guilty, testified that Chow had ordered him to kill Kong in 2011, then later told him that the matter had been “handled.” Jurors also heard a recording in which Chow told an agent he had withdrawn protection from Kong.
The bulk of the charges against Chow involved crimes that his subordinates allegedly agreed to commit with the agent who called himself Dave Jordan. Testifying in a courtroom closed to the public, the agent described transactions with members of the tong over a three-year period for sales of supposedly stolen liquor and cigarettes, and some drug deals, with more than $2 million of the proceeds laundered to evade government detection.
The agent said Chow introduced him to his followers and approved their transactions. Jurors heard numerous recordings in which the agent thanked Chow for “making it possible” and pressed envelopes of cash on him, which Jordan said totaled more than $60,000. Chow usually protested, saying he hadn’t done anything for the money and didn’t want to know about the details — but, the agent said, he never refused payment.
‘Love and respect’
In three days of testimony, including a lengthy and sarcastic cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Frentzen, Chow denied ever knowingly taking payoffs for crimes. He said he had introduced the agent to more than 50 tong members, for no illicit purposes. He said he deliberately steered clear of learning about their interactions and was repeatedly assured by Jordan that the payments to him were gestures of “love and respect.”
Chow’s lawyers argued that Frentzen’s accusatory questioning went too far and put words in the mouth of a defendant whose English skills were limited, though he had an interpreter to help him. They made little headway with Breyer, and have publicly accused the veteran judge of bias.
The defense was saddled with “so many handicaps ... so much misconduct” during the trial, including Breyer’s restrictions on defense funding and his rejection of many proposed defense witnesses, attorney Curtis Briggs said after the verdict.
Bob Egelko and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com; srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko; @steverubesf

[hskwarrior]

I was one of those the judge would not allow to testify......i plan to if the lawyers need me to in round two.

[GeneChing]

Wonder what Shrimp Boy will get?

Prosecutors to seek 8-year prison term for ex-Sen. Leland Yee
By Bob Egelko February 17, 2016 Updated: February 17, 2016 7:58pm


Leland Yee arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse to hear additional racketeering charges against him in his corruption case in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, July 31, 2014. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Leland Yee arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse to hear additional racketeering charges against him in his corruption case in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, July 31, 2014.
Federal prosecutors, portraying former state Sen. Leland Yee as a cynical and corrupt lawmaker, recommended an eight-year prison sentence Wednesday for the San Francisco Democrat, who admitted accepting bribes from undercover agents posing as campaign contributors.

Yee “was willing to betray the trust of those who elected him by being prepared to sell his vote to the highest bidder,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a filing to U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who has scheduled sentencing for Wednesday.

Yee, 67, pleaded guilty in July to a racketeering conspiracy charge. He admitted accepting at least $60,000 from undercover agents in return for promises of votes on legislation, other political favors, and illegal importing of firearms from the Philippines. The contributions were to pay off a debt from his unsuccessful 2011 campaign for mayor of San Francisco and to fund his short-lived 2014 campaign for California secretary of state.

Also pleading guilty to the racketeering conspiracy was Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board president who served as a consultant and fundraiser for Yee, and acted as his go-between with the undercover agents. Jackson is also due to be sentenced Wednesday, and his lawyer has asked Breyer for a six-year prison term. Yee’s attorney has not yet filed his sentencing request.

The prosecution arose from a five-year undercover investigation that focused initially on a Chinatown community organization, the Ghee Kung Tong. Its leader, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, was convicted last month of running the organization as a racketeering enterprise and murdering its former leader. Federal agents said they encountered Yee through Jackson, who also worked with Chow.

In arguing for an eight-year sentence, and a $25,000 fine, prosecutors noted that the bribes took place over a period of nearly three years and were solicited by a veteran legislator with ambitions for high office.

“Yee is a seasoned holder of public office who knows better,” prosecutors said. In one instance, they said, he made it clear that his vote on pending legislation — extending the life of the California State Athletic Commission — depended on “which interested party was willing to pay more.”

They also noted that Yee was publicly supporting gun control at the same time he was negotiating the supposed firearms sale. The senator told an undercover agent he was “agnostic” about the issue, prosecutors said.

In one incident that was not included in the criminal charges, prosecutors said, Yee took advantage of a female constituent, who asked him for help in a child custody dispute, to begin a sexual relationship.

Prosecutors also cited a secretly recorded conversation in July 2013 in which Yee was talking about prostitution with an unidentified man, and mentioned that he was also sponsoring legislation against human trafficking.

“I don’t care if it works, the bill works or not, so long as the women think I support women,” the senator said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com

[hskwarrior]

Wonder what Shrimp Boy will get?

he could be facing like 140 years. I'm hoping that the appeal will prove how dirty our politicians and law enforcement really is.

[bawang]

You are fat

[GeneChing]

So ends the chapter on Lee. Now let's see what becomes of Shrimp Boy.

Former state Sen. Leland Yee sentenced to prison
By Howard Mintz hmintz@mercurynews.com
POSTED: 02/24/2016 11:08:36 AM PST | UPDATED: ABOUT 5 HOURS AGO


State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, leaves federal court in San Francisco. He was sentenced Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, after acknowledging in a plea

State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, leaves federal court in San Francisco. He was sentenced Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, after acknowledging in a plea deal that he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes and discussed helping an undercover FBI agent buy automatic weapons from the Philippines. (Noah Berger/Associated Press)

In a courtroom packed with family, observers and media, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Wednesday imposed the sentence on the defrocked Bay Area politician, rejecting Yee's bid for leniency and calling his sale of votes for money a "violation of the public trust."

"The crimes that you committed have resulted in essentially an attack on democratic institutions," Breyer told Yee, who nodded as the judge addressed him. "This is a serious, serious injury to a governmental institution."

Dressed in a dark suit, a somber Yee had urged the judge to give him leniency, describing how he's "ashamed" of his crimes and hoping to make amends to family and supporters. "I have taken full responsibility for my actions and crimes I have committed," Yee said, his voice breaking. "That will haunt me the rest of my life."

Yee and his lawyer declined comment after the sentencing. The judge gave him 30 days to surrender to the U.S. Marshal's Service, which will turn him over to the federal prison system. James Lassart, Yee's lawyer, asked the judge to recommend the sentence be served at the federal prison in Taft in Kern County.

The 67-year-old Yee pleaded guilty last year to racketeering charges in connection with allegations he accepted bribes in exchange for his political influence. The sentence punctuates a case that started with a sprawling undercover FBI probe of crime in San Francisco's Chinatown and spread into the dark side of political dealing in Sacramento.

Acting U.S. Attorney Brian Stretch declined comment on the sentence. Federal prosecutors pushed for an eight-year sentence for Yee in his political corruption case, describing him in court papers as a public servant who "was willing to betray the trust of those who elected him" and "to sell his vote to the highest bidder."

"Senator Yee abused that trust in the worst possible way," Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Badger told the judge Wednesday, urging punishment above federal sentencing guidelines. "It was to retain power as a public official."

Despite Breyer's harsh admonition of Yee, the sentence was ultimately closer to what the defense sought than the prosecution. Yee's legal team asked the judge to sentence the former secretary of state hopeful to between four years and three months to a maximum of five years and three months, citing his career in public service. The defense insisted that Yee regrets his conduct, but did not act out of greed.

"He recognizes that his actions were wrong and he is remorseful and deeply regrets his conduct," defense lawyers wrote to Breyer last week. "His widely publicized criminal activity has served as his own private punishment. He embarrassed himself, his family, and community by this shocking digression from his honorable career in public service."

Yee unsuccessfully urged the judge to consider allowing him to serve his sentence in home detention instead of prison so that he can care for his ailing wife, arguing that sending him to prison would not serve any purpose.

Yee, a longtime San Francisco Democrat, was one of several state legislators charged with crimes in recent years in scandals that rocked the state Capitol. Legislators responded to the sentencing Wednesday with further calls for reform -- state Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, introduced a bill directed at Yee's conduct to close a loophole that allows the skirting of campaign contribution limits.

"Today's sentencing of a former elected official underscores the need to close campaign finance loopholes wherever they exist," Bates said.

Yee cut a plea deal with federal prosecutors, avoiding a trial but forcing him to admit he took payments in return for promises to use his political clout for a host of powerful interests, from NFL owners to medical marijuana businesses.

Yee was set to go on trial on political corruption, money laundering and gun trafficking charges last August along with three other defendants: political consultant Keith Jackson, his son, Brandon Jackson, and former sports agent Marlon Sullivan.

Those defendants also pleaded guilty to racketeering under separate plea deals with the U.S. attorney's office. Breyer on Wednesday sentenced Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board president who put Yee in the FBI's cross hairs, to nine years in prison, calling him a "one-person crime wave." Prosecutors sought a 10-year term.

In the plea agreement, Yee admitted that he traded his political influence for bribes, typically offered by undercover FBI agents posing as potential campaign contributors. Yee, among other things, admitted he agreed to influence legislation for would-be medical marijuana businesses in California, an NFL team owner trying to exempt pro athletes from the state's workers' compensation laws and a fictitious FBI concocted software firm seeking government technology contracts.

The racketeering charge also contained allegations Yee tried to arrange an illegal international arms deal through the Philippines in exchange for money. Yee confirmed his role in that bizarre crime as well, but disputed that he had the ability to carry it out. Breyer called his involvement in that crime "hypocritical" and "unfathomable" given his past advocacy for gun control.

As for the political dealings, Yee admitted, for example, accepting an $11,000 cash bribe in June 2013 from an undercover FBI agent to help sponsor statewide marijuana legislation, according to his plea agreement. In addition, he admitted he laundered a $6,800 contribution to his secretary of state campaign in 2014, court records show. Overall, government officials identified more than $100,000 in bribes directed at Yee during the investigation, although his lawyers disputed that figure.

The FBI snagged Yee in the course of a five-year probe into reputed Chinatown crime boss Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, who was convicted of racketeering charges in December after a lengthy trial. Chow is awaiting sentencing.

Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz

[mickey]

Greetings,

I was doing some lurking around and found something that got me thinking.

http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/For...ML/000289.html

Even though this is one person's assertion and it may not have a shred of truth to it, it made me wonder if the reason that Shrimp Boy Chow is catching so much hell is not because he is guilty, but, because he refuses to continue to do those things anymore.


mickey

[hskwarrior]

Greetings,

I was doing some lurking around and found something that got me thinking.

http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/For...ML/000289.html

Even though this is one person's assertion and it may not have a shred of truth to it, it made me wonder if the reason that Shrimp Boy Chow is catching so much hell is not because he is guilty, but, because he refuses to continue to do those things anymore.


mickey

The **** going down with shrimp boy is very similar to what happened with john gotti who loved the spotlight. there was a part in the movie "gotti" when the feds were upset gotti was rubbing his fame in the feds faces who then went after him. Shrimpboy was indeed changing his ways. he was succeeding. but the one documentary on gangland made him look like he was bragging about currently doing things when he was only talking about his past. but recently, in the news, it seems our SF government is way more corrupt and doing crime than shrimp boy was

[mickey]

but recently, in the news, it seems our SF government is way more corrupt and doing crime than shrimp boy was

Greetings hskwarrior,

This is my point. When Shrimp Boy chow basically says, "I ain't your boy no more", he is suddenly a problem that must be eradicated, something that could have been done years ago. Back then, he was compliant and everyone from the pimps to the politicians was happy making moolah. The real reason to incarcerate Shrimp Boy Chow: to keep the money flowing like it used to.

Shrimp Boy Chow: The other Noriega.


mickey

[hskwarrior]

Shrimp Boy Chow: The other Noriega.

I prefer to think of raymond as the Chinese John Gotti. The feds hating him for the same reasons.

I do NOT regret ever serving under him.