Former State Senator Leland Yee was indicted for corruption in office which included a 2013 incident in which Yee allegedly agreed to take $60,000 — which he believed was coming from a National Football League team owner — in exchange for his and another senator’s vote on a bill dealing with workers’ compensation insurance for pro athletes. Last February Yee was sentenced to five years in federal prison following his guilty pleas.
Yee was ensnared by an FBI investigation that spanned several years and led to the convictions of Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, a reputed Chinatown mobster, Keith Jackson, a former school board president and fundraiser for Lee, and others.
The mobster, Kwok Cheung Chow, AKA Raymond Chow, AKA Ha Jai, AKA Shrimp Boy was sentenced on August 4 to life in prison following his convictions for racketeering, murder, money laundering, and conspiracy charges. Chow, 55, of San Francisco, served as the Dragonhead, or leader, of the San Francisco-based Chee Kung Tong organization.
On January 8, 2016, a federal jury found Chow guilty of criminal activities in connection with the racketeering organization and additional conspiracies. In all, Chow was charged with 162 counts including 125 counts of money laundering, aiding and abetting the laundering of proceeds of narcotics sales, conspiring to deal in illegal sales of goods.
Chow originally was charged with various racketeering related crimes in a criminal complaint filed March 24, 2015. The complaint charged that the purposes of the organization included the illegal trafficking of controlled substances, extortion, and participation in the collection of illegal debts. On October 15, 2015, the charges were formally amended in a Third Superseding Indictment to include murder. Chow was charged with and convicted of arranging the murder of Allen Leung and conspiring with others to murder Jim Tat Kong.
The jury found Chow guilty of every one of the 162 charges leveled against him.
In sentencing Chow, Judge Breyer said, “The murder in this case [of Mr. Leung] that requires the life sentence was particularly callous because it was the removal of an obstacle to your ascension to power. So whether you paid for it, or not, the question is: what is your motivation for doing so? And your motivation for doing so was to take over the leadership role of the tong and corrupt their purposes.”
“Chow was sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison,” said U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch. “We hope that this prosecution and the resulting sentence provides the victims and their families with some measure of satisfaction that Mr. Chow will never again be free to continue with his life of crime.”
“This sentence reflects our commitment to vigorously pursue justice for the victims and community that Mr. Chow preyed off of for so long,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett. “We hope that the sentence brings some form of closure for the families of Allen Leung and Jim Tat Kong, and shows that type of greed and violence will not be tolerated.”
“This was a case about power and greed,” said Michael T. Batdorf, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation. “From narcotics trafficking to public corruption and murder, Mr. Chow laundered millions of dollars in drug and other illegal proceeds for a profit. Today’s sentencing closes the chapter on Mr. Chow’s life of crime.”
In addition to the life term of imprisonment, Judge Breyer also sentenced Chow to pay a special assessment of $16,200, to pay restitution in the amount of $15,881.60, and to forfeit $225,000. The Judge also issued an order enjoining Chow and others from profiting from his life story. Chow has been in custody since his arrest on March 26, 2014, and will begin serving his life sentence immediately.