SAN FRANCISCO — From the day last year that FBI agents swooped down on former state Sen. Leland Yee and dozens of other targets of the sprawling crime and corruption probe dubbed “Operation Whitesuit,” one central figure made it clear he would not go down easily.
Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
While Yee and every other defendant hunkered down and worked behind the scenes to cope with the U.S. Justice Department’s sweeping racketeering indictment, Chow, the reputed head of San Francisco’s Chinese crime syndicate, went public with his indignant claims of innocence. J. Tony Serra, a San Francisco defense lawyer famed for taking on the government, even held a news conference in his offices the week of the March 2014 arrests, handing out “Free Shrimp Boy” T-shirts to make his jailed client’s case.
This week, the collision course between Chow and federal prosecutors will finally reach its climax in federal court in San Francisco. Both sides will pick a jury for a trial that will decide racketeering charges against Chow ranging from gun trafficking to murder — and also serve as a referendum on the government’s five-year undercover sting operation, which relied on wiretaps, informants, bags of cash and booze-filled meetings in fancy hotels and restaurants to snag the FBI’s quarry, including Yee.
“It’s all a gamble,” said former federal prosecutor Rory Little, a UC Hastings College of the Law professor. “Until the play opens, you don’t know how it will end. But when (Serra) makes these arguments, juries like him. If they like him, they hear him on how it’s on the big, bad government.”
When the trial begins in earnest Nov. 9, jurors will certainly hear two competing stories. Federal prosecutors will depict Chow as a violent gang leader with a long history of overseeing Chinatown’s crime scene. Chow’s lawyers will try to sell him as a reformed criminal who turned straight only to be framed by federal agents trying to justify one of the longest and most expensive undercover probes in recent Bay Area history.
And given that Yee and other key defendants in the case already have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and await sentencing, it may be the public’s only full glimpse of the government’s operation.
Federal prosecutors do have plenty of ammunition. In a sweeping federal indictment alleging dozens of crimes, prosecutors portray Chow as the leader, or “Dragonhead,” of an Asian organization called the Ghee Kung Tong that law enforcement agents say was involved in drug and gun trafficking and money laundering, as well as trafficking in stolen booze and cigarettes. Charges added to the case in October also now link Chow to the murders of at least two alleged gang rivals, one gunned down in San Francisco in 2006 and the other found dead with his wife in Mendocino County two years ago.
During the course of the undercover probe, Chow allegedly accepted thousands of dollars in cash for a variety of crimes from FBI agents posing as businessmen and gangsters, according to court papers. The 55-year-old Chow also has previously served federal prison time for racketeering and other crimes. He was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison in 2000, but served only three years after cooperating in the government’s case against another reputed Asian organized crime figure.
But defense lawyers plan to put the government itself on trial, particularly the lead undercover FBI agent, who met repeatedly with Chow, plying him with drinks and handing him envelopes of cash in posh spots such as the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. The agent is only identified as “Dave,” denigrated in Chow’s court papers as “suffering from logorrhea and a generous dollop of Tourette’s disorder as well.”
Defense lawyers say the recently added murder charges are a late, desperate move to bolster the government’s case, relying on what they describe as dishonest informers who’ve cut deals with prosecutors.
“It is so far astray from legitimate law enforcement it doesn’t make any sense,” said Curtis Briggs, who is aiding Serra in the defense. “It’s a cops-and-robbers game gone wrong.”
The trial is unlikely to delve much into the political corruption allegations against Yee, who was charged with accepting bribes in exchange for political favors. But it is expected to touch on the origins of the investigation, which only stumbled upon Yee as the FBI probe into Chow’s dealings connected the ex-legislator with a number of figures, including San Francisco political consultant Keith Jackson, who also has pleaded guilty to racketeering.
The direct ties between Yee and Chow in the indictment are tenuous, other than an allegation the legislator agreed to back a resolution praising the Ghee Kung Tong organization for campaign cash, but Jackson’s involvement with Chow led the FBI to the senator — and the pursuit of the bribery aspect of the probe.
James Brosnahan, Jackson’s lawyer, believes the Chow trial can shine a light on what he considers a wayward investigation that should be reviewed by the Justice Department. And Brosnahan believes a Bay Area jury may be receptive to Serra’s fiery style of characterizing the government as worse than the crimes it is pursuing.
“It is a workable strategy,” said Brosnahan, also a high-profile Bay Area defense lawyer. “I’ve not seen a case where the government had a sting operation that lasted this long, cost this much money and went at people who otherwise would not be involved in this kind of thing.”
Little, however, cautions that Chow must do more than simply attack the government for the FBI’s tactics.
“It’s not a powerful argument to just say the government spent a lot of money, that they spent (many) years on this,” he said. (Racketeering laws) were invented to prosecute Mafia bosses. The allegations here boil down to Shrimp Boy Chow being a Chinese gang Mafia boss. There is no question Shrimp Boy was the main target.”
Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz
