Người Việt Online, Friday, March 28, 2014 7:11:56 PM
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Bên dưới những dây lồng đèn đỏ và những lối đi chật hẹp ở khu phố Tàu cổ kính nhất Hoa Kỳ, theo FBI, là một thế giới tội ác âm thầm hoạt động.
Vụ liên bang truy tố một luật gia California tội nhận hối lộ và tiền ủng hộ vận động tranh cử, đổi lấy sự bao che chính thức của ông, làm phơi bày một mạng lưới chằng chịt các tổ chức liên kết chặt chẽ ở Chinatown, kể cả một tay trùm bí ẩn tên Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
| “Ðại Ca Ðầu Rồng” – Dragon Head – Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow trong một bức hình chụp Tháng Bảy, 2007, tại San Francisco. (Hình: AP Photo/Jen Siska) |
Theo các nhà điều tra, ông Chow là trùm của một trong những băng đảng Á Châu khét tiếng nhất vùng Bắc Mỹ. Theo tài liệu của FBI, Chow có biệt danh là “Dragon head” – Ðại Ca Ðầu Rồng.
Băng đảng của ông Chow lôi kéo được ông Leland Yee, thượng nghị sĩ tiểu bang California vào nanh vuốt của họ bằng tiền bạc và đóng góp cho quỹ tranh cử, để đổi lấy sự giúp đỡ về luật pháp.
Ðảng trưởng Chow ra đời ở Hồng Kông năm 1960 và đến Mỹ hồi mới 16 tuổi. Bỏ học nửa chừng, Chow thăng tiến nhanh trong hàng ngũ băng địa phương Hop Sing Tong, sau lần thoát chết trong vụ bắn nhau tại một nhà hàng ở Chinatown năm 1977, khiến 5 chết và cả chục bị thương.
Sau khi ở tù vài năm về tội cướp, Chow tham gia tam đầu chế Wo Hop To có căn cứ đặt tại Hồng Kông, một trong những tổ chức xã hội đen. Chow trong cương vị đảng trưởng, từng xác nhận đã tổ chức các đường dây mại dâm, buôn lậu ma túy và tống tiền các cơ sở thương mãi trong thập niên 1980.
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Cựu thượng nghị sĩ tiểu bang California, Leland Yee, rời văn phòng liên bang |
Dù bị truy tố tội danh về súng, và trực diện bản án từ 25 năm đến chung thân hồi thập niên 1990, ông Chow đạt được thỏa thuận thương lượng để được thả và trở về với Chinatown từ nhiều năm trước, đồng thời hứa sẽ đi theo cuộc sống ngay thẳng.
Nhưng nhiều khiếu nại cho rằng ông Chow lấy tư cách đầu gấu của Ghee Kung Tong để rửa tiền, nhận và chuyển vận đồ ăn cắp và thuốc lá lậu.
Cựu Thượng Nghị Sĩ Yee là một đảng viên Dân Chủ, ra đời ở Trung Quốc, xây dựng sự nghiệp chính trị của mình một phần qua các móc nối ở Chinatown, chưa bao giờ thua trong cuộc chạy đua chính trị nào, ngoại trừ lần tranh ghế thị trưởng San Francisco vào 2011.
Nhiều năm trước, cảnh sát chìm FBI thâm nhập vào tổ chức của ông Chow, gài bẫy được ông Yee và phụ tá tranh cử của ông là Keith Jackson.
Cả ba bị bắt trong cuộc bố ráp ở Sacramento và San Francisco Bay Area hôm Thứ Tư, cùng với nhiều đồng đảng khác.
Ông Yee được tại ngoại với tiền thế chân $500,000, đồng thời rút lui khỏi cuộc tranh cử ghế California secretary of state. Cả hai ông Chow lẫn Jackson đều bị từ chối không được đóng tiền tại ngoại.
Trong ngày Thứ Sáu, Thượng Viện California bỏ phiếu, ngưng chức ba thượng nghị sĩ Dân Chủ, gồm Ron Calderon, Leland Yee và Rod Wright.
Các nhân viên FBI bố ráp văn phòng một tổ chức tại Chinatown, San Francisco, 26 Tháng Ba. (Hình: AP Photo/Eric Risberg) |
Cuộc bỏ phiếu, kết quả 28 thuận, 1 chống, diễn ra trong bối cảnh được xem là khủng hoảng đạo đức nặng nề nhất của lịch sử tiểu bang trong thời gian qua.
Nghị quyết của Thượng Viện có hiệu lực ngăn cấm các nghị sĩ này sử dụng quyền của mình cho đến khi có kết luận cuối cùng về các cáo buộc. Tuy nhiên, trong thời gian tạm ngưng chức, cả 3 người vẫn được lãnh lương, $95,000/năm. (T.P. & Ð.B.)
How the undercover FBI agent broke Calif. state Sen. Yee case
Henry K. Lee
Updated 7:27 am, Friday, March 28, 2014
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/How-the-undercover-FBI-agent-broke-Calif-state-5355568.php#photo-6076439
A family,right, stands in their doorway as a Police Special Agent carries bags of evidence out of the Ghee Kung Tong Chinese Free Masons Temple in Chinatown during a raid related to Sen. Leland Yee’s arrest, San Francisco, CA, Wednesday Mar. 26, 2014. The FBI raids State Sen. Leland Yee’s office in Sacramento and other locations were searched by the FBI in San Francisco. He was reportedly arrested on public corruption charges Wednesday morning amid raids of his office in Sacramento and searches by the FBI in San Francisco. Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle
Related Stories
• Copy of Leland Yee indictment (PDF)
• Calif. state Sen. Yee affidavit reads like an action thriller
• Calif. state Sen. Yee’s Sunset District neighbors shocked by case
• Calif. state Sen. Yee withdraws from secretary of state race
• Leland Yee quits secretary of state race
• Calif. state Senator Yee case: ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow’s criminal history
• Democrats call for resignation of Calif. state Senator Yee
The man appeared to be some type of supercriminal – a drug-dealing, gun-running member of the Sicilian Mafia who held up cigarette trucks, fingered enemies for assassination and swam in millions of dollars that needed laundering.
He became, authorities allege, a trusted go-to guy and moneymaker for associates of the Ghee Kung Tong, the Chinese brotherhood that Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow ran in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Or so everyone thought.
The man Chow had called a “good brother” was actually an FBI agent now known in court records as “UCE 4599,” short for undercover employee. All the bravado about underworld connections was part of an elaborate cover story – or legend, in FBI parlance.
It was the work of this and other undercover agents, the FBI said, that led to federal charges against 26 people, including Chow and state Sen. Leland Yee. Chow is accused of crimes including money laundering, while Yee is accused of conspiring to traffic in guns (with the agent) and of trading political favors for campaign donations (from multiple undercover agents).
Since Yee’s arrest Wednesday morning, which prompted him to drop his bid to be elected secretary of state, much of the focus has been on his alleged willingness to accept bribes.
But the case is also striking for the lengths to which UCE 4599 went to cast himself as a bad guy, doling out streams of cash and boasting that “the only license he had was to do whatever business he wanted to.” The agent was so effective, the FBI said, that he was “sworn in” to the Ghee Kung Tong.
A target for defense
The agent’s aggressiveness, while not unusual in federal probes of organized crime and terrorism, may become a target for defense attorneys, who often argue in such cases that none of the alleged crimes would have occurred if they weren’t initiated by the FBI.
In any event, UCE 4599 succeeded in his primary objective: keeping his cover. At one point, when one of the defendants voiced suspicions about the agent, Chow responded that if the man “was a snitch, he was a very good one,” according to an FBI affidavit.
The depths to which the agent and others infiltrated the group must have required them to live and breathe their personas around the clock, said Rick Smith, a former FBI special agent in San Francisco who now works as a private investigator.
New home, new identity
He said the agents most likely had to live in new homes away from their families and center their lives on entirely new – and convincing – identities, both in real life and on social media, in case targets smelled a rat and started investigating.
The case has parallels with the recent indictment of state Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello (Los Angeles County), on corruption charges. Calderon is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover FBI agents who posed as Hollywood film studio executives who wanted him to support a film tax credit.
‘Living that life’
“A lot of acting is involved,” Smith said of undercover work. “They wouldn’t be doing this on a part-time basis. You’re living that life for a while. You start from scratch, and you assume a new identity.”
The agents in the San Francisco case were likely given the authority from higher-ups at the FBI to engage in crime in order to snare the targets.
“There is a fine line,” Smith said, adding that the FBI scrutinizes such operations to counter any defense claims of entrapment. “That’s absolutely anticipated, and they’ll deal with it when they have to deal with it.”
Although other federal agencies have been known to ship in undercover officers from different parts of the country, Smith said it was more likely that the FBI “used someone local” because “you want someone indigenous, because they know the community.”
As for the cash and contraband that the FBI distributed during the Chow investigation, Candice DeLong, a former FBI profiler, said the bureau often has “stuff that is seized,” such as money or drugs, that can be tapped.
“You can’t work undercover and expect to make a case,” DeLong said, “without coming up with the goods.”
Agent met with targets
Court records reveal how UCE 4599 and other undercover FBI agents sought to draw out Chow, Yee and the others.
Chow was first introduced to UCE 4599 in May 2010, when the agent claimed to be with La Cosa Nostra. The agent later met with targets all over the Bay Area and elsewhere, including Las Vegas and Flushing, N.Y., records show.
Eventually, the FBI said, Chow and five other defendants laundered $2.3 million for UCE 4599, who told the men that the money came from illegal gambling and marijuana grows. The agent forked over a 10 percent commission, the FBI said.
The undercover agent stayed busy, either initiating or participating in deals to traffic in illicit liquor, cigarettes, guns and drugs, and asking some of the targets to kill people, FBI Special Agent Emmanuel Pascua wrote in an affidavit.
Pascua said the agent ultimately made contact with Yee through an associate who helped Yee raise money, including for his failed 2011 San Francisco mayoral campaign. Yee allegedly agreed to trade favors in Sacramento for campaign contributions made by UCE 4599 – as well as agents UCE 4773 and UCE 4180.
It was UCE 4599 who reported engaging in a gun-trafficking deal facilitated by Yee, again while offering campaign funds.
“Senator Yee told UCE 4599 he saw their relationship as tremendously beneficial,” Pascua wrote in his affidavit.
Yee, he said, promised to name the agent to a Russian delegation upon winning the election for secretary of state.
Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee
Calif. state Sen. Yee affidavit reads like an action thriller
Marisa Lagos. Updated 10:27 am, Friday, March 28, 2014
https://diendancuachungta.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=post
Coke deals. Shoulder-fired missiles. Hit men. Gang politics. Bribery. Deal-making in dark restaurants, parking lots and Las Vegas hotel rooms, and on fishing boats off the Hawaiian islands.
A 137-page federal complaint lays out the charges against state Sen. Leland Yee, alleged Chinatown mobster Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow and 24 others connected to Chow. But it also reads like a Hollywood script.
There’s the slick FBI agent going deeper undercover and pushing the action. There’s the gangster with the catchy nickname who publicly claims to have gone straight. And there’s the veteran politician, allegedly willing to compromise his values to stay in office.
The tale reached a climax Wednesday when the government unsealed charges against Chow, Yee and 24 others after a series of coordinated raids. Chow, 54, stands accused of money laundering and other crimes, while Yee, 65, faces charges that he traded political favors for campaign donations and, at one point, facilitated a gun-trafficking deal.
The complicated story – plotted in large part by the FBI – started with a meeting in a karaoke bar booth. At the outset, Yee wasn’t even on investigators’ radar.
Enter ‘UCE 4599’
In May 2010, an undercover agent identified only as “UCE 4599” reported sitting down with Chow, the head of the Ghee Kung Tong brotherhood in Chinatown, at a San Francisco karaoke bar.
The agent, who scored an introduction to his prime target through an undercover colleague, portrayed himself as a member of La Cosa Nostra. Over time, the FBI said, he gained Chow’s trust – enough to be sworn into his organization as a “consultant.”
Chow leaned in, the federal complaint says, to whisper a secret: Although he went clean after his 2003 release from prison, he approved all criminal activity in his organization.
This marked a pattern, authorities said, with Chow refusing to be directly involved in money laundering, gun trafficking and drug running but making introductions to facilitate deals before accepting envelopes stuffed with $1,000 or $2,000 in cash from the FBI agent.
In one recorded call, Chow allegedly said he “sacrificed himself by being the target of law enforcement and that has enabled other members of his organization to conduct criminal activity ‘freely.’ ”
The next month, the FBI said, Chow traveled to Oahu to meet with UCE 4599 and another undercover agent. On a chartered boat, the three men purportedly discussed Chow’s idea for an illegal scheme to ship “military grade” tungsten metal between the U.S. and China, and to export high-end cognacs.
The schemes didn’t pan out. But soon, the FBI said, UCE 4599 provided members of Ghee Kung Tong with millions of dollars he claimed to have earned via drug and gun deals. Chow’s associates laundered the money, according to the complaint, and took a 10 percent commission.
The case was moving along like a fairly ordinary gang takedown. But within months of Chow’s first meeting with the agent, the FBI said, Chow began working with Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board member and public relations pro who was doing fundraising work for Yee.
Jackson, 49, approached Chow to seek support for the Hunters Point Shipyard development in the Bayview, a project for which Jackson consulted. According to the compliant, Chow introduced Jackson to the agent in August 2010, telling him that Jackson “can do ‘inside deals’ with the city.”
The following May, the FBI said, Jackson began soliciting donations from the agent for Yee’s mayoral campaign, saying he wanted him to give more than the city’s $500 limit – while describing how much money Yee would control if elected mayor.
The agent reported that he refused but set Jackson up with another undercover agent. That agent cut a $5,000 check to Jackson’s consultancy firm that was meant for the campaign and helped raise thousands of dollars more, according to the complaint.
After Yee lost the mayor’s race, Jackson allegedly continued to ask the agents for donations. Yee was said to be desperate for money – saddled with $70,000 in campaign debt and looking for funds for his run for secretary of state.
From the start, according to the complaint, Jackson and Yee agreed that donations would be attached to favors. The scenarios, though, appear to have been fabricated by the FBI.
In exchange for $10,000, Yee allegedly lobbied a manager at the state Department of Public Health. For $21,000, the FBI said, the senator agreed to arrange meetings with two senators. And for $6,800, Yee honored Ghee Kung Tong with an official proclamation.
That same month, the original agent, UCE 4599, reported buying a handgun and ammunition from Jackson and his son, 28-year-old Brandon Jackson. The next month, the agent allegedly bought nine guns and two ballistic vests from the Jacksons. One of the vests had been stolen from the FBI.
The arms dealer
In August 2013, the complaint alleges, conversations between Keith Jackson and the FBI agent broadened.
Jackson allegedly offered to introduce the agent to an international arms dealer whom Yee knew in exchange for more money for the secretary of state campaign.
Jackson, his son and another man also agreed to kill someone for the agent for a fee of $10,000 to $25,000, the FBI said. This, too, was a fabrication: Another undercover agent later posed as the supposed victim, and the killing never happened.
At an October meeting, the FBI said, Jackson told the agent that he needed to talk to “Uncle Leland” about brokering a meeting with an arms trafficker who “was attempting to ship weapons to the Philippines because there was an ongoing war between an unidentified Philippine Muslim group and the Philippine government.”
Two months later, the agent reported giving Jackson $1,000 for Yee’s campaign as “motivation” to set up a meeting with the weapons trafficker.
At a meeting soon after, the FBI said, Yee told the agent that he had known the arms dealer for years and that it wasn’t a business “for the faint of heart.”
“Do I think we can make some money?” Yee asked, according to the complaint. “I think we can make some money. Do I think we can get the goods? I think we can get the goods.”
At various times, the FBI said, the agent told Yee he wanted “shoulder-fired weapons or missiles,” or “Hellfire missiles,” and said he was ready to spend up to $2.5 million.
The senator allegedly agreed, telling the agent he saw their relationship as beneficial, and promising he could help him in future business deals as secretary of state.
Despondent, paranoid
The complaint portrays Yee, a 26-year public servant who has a wife and four grown children, as despondent with life and paranoid about getting cut out of the arms deal – but also fearful of getting caught.
The senator, the FBI said, alluded to the corruption indictment of another state senator and at one point said he wanted to hide out in the Philippines.
“There is a part of me that wants to be like you,” the complaint quotes Yee as telling the undercover agent. “You know how I’m going to be like you? Just be a free agent out there.”
At a series of San Francisco meetings this month, the FBI said, Yee met with Keith Jackson and the undercover agent, asking for more campaign money and discussing how weapons from the Philippines would get to buyers in North Africa.
Yee, an outspoken advocate of gun control, purportedly said it would be easier if the agent could get weapons directly from the Philippines, instead of shipping them through New Jersey. Yee allegedly said he had access to automatic weapons – but wasn’t sure about shoulder-fired missiles.
Yee told the agent that Africa “was a largely untapped market for trade,” the FBI said. But according to the complaint, Yee said he couldn’t travel to the Philippines until November, when the election would be over, and that he needed to be there to facilitate the deal.
On Thursday, a day after federal and local authorities stormed his Sunset District home, Yee bowed out of the race for secretary of state.
It’s still not clear whether there was ever an international arms dealer – or if Yee, like the agents who took him down, had made the whole thing up.
Marisa Lagos is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mlagos@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mlagos
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