California state Sen. Leland Yee was arrested on
public corruption charges as part of several arrests made by the FBI
Wednesday morning during a massive FBI sting.
U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag of the Northern District
of California said that Yee and Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, leader of the
Chee Kung Tong Free Masons in San Francisco, were among 26 defendants
charged in a federal criminal complaint.
Yee and Chow were arraigned before Federal Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon.
The
federal criminal complaint,
filed on March 24, was unsealed in San Francisco Wednesday, charging
the defendants with firearms trafficking, money laundering,
murder-for-hire, drug distribution, trafficking in contraband cigarettes
and honest services fraud, the FBI announced.
Yee was charged with conspiracy to traffic in
firearms without a license, and to illegally import firearms as well as a
scheme to defraud citizens of honest services.
If convicted on all charges, Yee could face more than
100 years in prison. His bail was set at $500,000, unsecured, with the
provision that he not leave the state. He was released from custody late
Wednesday afternoon.
Yee is due back in court on Monday.
Chow’s charges include money laundering and conspiracy to trafficking contraband cigarettes.
One of the places the FBI searched Wednesday was at
the San Francisco Chinatown office of the Chee Kung Tong at 36 Spofford
St., where Chow, a notorious former Chinatown gangster, conducts
business. Chow was arrested during the raid.
Firefighters were seen going inside with a circular saw and later said they had cracked a safe.
According to the complaint, a pattern of alleged
racketeering activity emerged as FBI undercover agents infiltrated the
CKT through introductions made by Chow and others.
Over the course of the undercover agent’s
relationship with Chow and other defendants, the complaint shows, the
undercover agent informed the group that he was interested in generating
income from illegal schemes. He was then inducted into CKT as a
“consultant,” and allegedly introduced to a number of the defendants in
order to launder money, traffic narcotics, firearms and purpotedly
stolen cigarettes and liquor and engage in murder-for-hire schemes over
the course of multiple undercover operations.
The FBI also arrested Keith Jackson, a well-known
political consultant who owns San Francisco-based political consulting
firm Jackson Consultancy.
Chow also introduced Jackson — a “consultant” to the
CKT — to the undercover agent. Jackson and his son Brandon Jackson
allegedly responded to the undercover agent’s request for weapons,
selling him various types of firearms and two ballistic vests.
Jackson, Brandon Jackson and another defendant
allegedly conspired on a murder for hire scheme at the undercover
agent’s request.
The complaint also says that Jackson is a close
associate of Lee and has been involved in raising campaign funds for him
from at least through May 2011 to the present.
The complaint alleges that starting in 2012 and
continuing until now, Yee and Keith Jackson allegedly raised money and
campaign funds for Yee’s secretary of state campaign by soliciting
donations from undercover FBI agents in exchange for multiple official
acts.
The compaint also alleges that Yee and Jackson were involved in a conspiracy to traffic firearms.
The complaint details how, starting in May 2011 and
continuing for several months, Jackson asked an undercover FBI agent to
make contributions to Yee’s San Francisco mayoral campaign. The agent
declined to make contributions but introduced Jackson and Yee to a
business associate, who was another undercover agent. When Jackson and
Yee asked the agent for campaign contributions, it resulted in at least
one personal $5,000 donation.
The complaint claims that Yee tried to get rid of a
$70,000 debt after losing the November 2011 election by making a call to
the California Department of Public Health in support of a contract
with the second undercover agent’s purported client and writing an
official letter of support in exchange for a $10,000 campaign donation.
Yee allegedly made the call on Oct. 18, 2012, and
provided the letter around Jan. 13, 2013. Jackson accepted the $10,000
on Nov. 19, 2012.
Yee is best known publicly for his efforts to
strengthen open records, government transparency and whistleblower
protection laws, including legislation to close a loophole in state
public records laws after the CSU Stanislaus Foundation refused to
release its $75,000 speaking contract with former vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin in 2010.
Chow ran a Chinese criminal organization with ties
to Hong Kong and was convicted of gun charges. But he had recently been
held up as an example of successful rehabilitation and was praised for
his work in the community.
In 1992, Chow was among more than two-dozen people
indicted on racketeering charges for their alleged involvement in crimes
ranging from teenage prostitution to an international drug trade mostly
involving heroin.
He was later convicted of gun charges and sentenced
to 25 years to life in prison. He spent 11 years in prison and was
released in 2003 after he cut a deal with the government to testify
against another high-ranking associate, Peter Chong. Chong was later
convicted of racketeering.
On what appears to be Raymond Chow’s Facebook page,
Chow displayed a picture of a certificate of honor presented to him by
Lee that honored him “for his tenacity and willingness to give back to
the community and working ‘in the trenches’ as a change agent.”
Chow also appears to have been tweeting from the
Twitter handle @RaymondChow10, using hashtags that included
“sunoftheunderworld,” “mafia.” and “chinatown.” His last tweet was on
Nov. 17, which shows him at his sister’s birthday, enjoying a glass of
red wine.
Chow has also posted pictures of him with other
notable public figures and local business owners, including former San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and a picture of another certificate of
recognition from state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.
Yee’s arrest came as a shock to Chinese-Americans
who see the senator as a pioneering leader in the community and a
mainstay of San Francisco politics, said David Lee, director of the
Chinese American Voters Education Committee.
“People are waiting to see what happens, and they
are hoping for the best, that the charges turn out not to be true,” said
Lee, whose organization just held a get-out-the-vote event with Yee and
other Chinese-American elected officials last week.
For his efforts to uphold the California Public
Records Act, Yee was honored last week by the Northern California
chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, which awarded him
its public official citation for his efforts last year to maintain the
requirements of the California Public Records Act.
Officers from the California Highway Patrol and
Sergeant at Arms were stationed outside Yee’s state Capitol office in
Sacramento Wednesday morning, where the FBI agents conducted a raid,
taking computers and other documents,
according to KCRA-TV.
The FBI confirmed to KCRA-TV that it had raided
homes and businesses in the Bay Area and Sacramento Wednesday morning,
issuing multiple search warrants and making arrests.
Yee’s press secretary, Dan Lieberman, declined to
comment when contacted by NBC Bay Area. An official statement would be
released sometime Wednesday afternoon, he said.
Yee’s arrest would make him the third Democratic state senator fighting charges this year.
His arrest comes just one month after prosecutors
announced federal bribery and corruption charges filed against state
Sen. Ron Calderon.
Prosecutors say the
Los Angeles-area Democrat accepted about $100,000 in cash bribes and
other perks in exchange for his supporting or opposing bills. Calderon
has pleaded not guilty.
Earlier in the year, Democratic Sen. Rod Wright was
found guilty of multiple charges that stemmed from accusations he did
not actually live in the Southern California district he represents.
Wright is appealing the conviction.
Both Wright and
Calderon have taken a leave of absence from the state Senate.
Democrat Derek Cressman, who is one of several candidates also running for secretary of state, called Yee’s arrest a “wake-up call.”
“We are clearly beyond the point of looking at one
bad apple and instead looking at a corrupt institution in the California
senate,” Cressman said in a statement. “The constant begging for
campaign cash clearly has a corrosive effect on a person’s soul and the
only solution is to get big money out of our politics once and for all.”
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said that he was shocked and disappointed by the news.
“Leland Yee has been a part of public service for a long time, sorry to see that tainted by these allegations,” Lee said.
Yee is the first Chinese American ever elected to
the California State Senate. He emigrated to San Francisco from China at
age 3. Yee graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and
receieved a master’s degree from San Francisco State University. Yee and
his wife Maxine have four children.
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