Posted on 01/12/2016 10:22:49 AM PST by Kaslin
The verdict is in. On Friday, jurors found 56-year-old Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow guilty on all 162 charges against him, including murder, conspiracy to murder, racketeering, trafficking in stolen goods and 154 counts of money laundering. Though the FBI and U.S. attorney's office may feel vindicated by the verdict, the guilty verdict also serves as an indictment of the federal criminal justice system's standard operating procedure. It was the feds, after all, who chose to let Chow out of prison despite his long criminal career.
In 2003, the feds freed Chow, who was serving a 160-month sentence on racketeering charges involving murder for hire, conspiracy to distribute heroin and arson after he testified against a fellow gang leader who had fled to Hong Kong. It was an odd decision for a bizarre deal -- free a violent offender in order to imprison another violent offender who had left the United States and had no reason to come back. Chow also had previous state felony firearms convictions -- yet federal prosecutors released him from prison despite the risk that he might reoffend.
If the FBI thought Chow was an asset in 2003, surely they reconsidered in 2006 when, according to a federal criminal complaint, the San Francisco Police Department and FBI surveilled Chow's swearing-in to replace murdered Ghee Kung Tong "dragonhead" Allen Leung. (Jurors found Chow guilty Friday of Leung's murder.) If the feds could not deport Chow, a Chinese citizen, surely they could have tried to show that he violated the plea agreement, which one would hope would forbid him to break the law. Instead, Chow remained free to serve as the head of the long-established tong, which he ran as a criminal organization.
Later, authorities conducted a very expensive and very long (five-year) investigation. A large percentage of the $1.088 million of the operation's out-of-pocket expenses went to pricey restaurants and top-drawer beverages, spending that enabled undercover agent "Dave Jordan" to appear as a big shot.
The long, expensive investigation led to charges against 27 co-defendants, including California state Sen. Leland Yee, who was accused of conspiracy to traffic firearms. The Yee indictment turned the arrests into a national story that seemed to justify the time and money the government spent. The firearms charge, however, did not hold, and Yee ended up pleading guilty to a charge of racketeering.
Jurors also found Chow guilty of conspiring to murder Jim Kat Tong -- who was found shot dead with his wife in Mendocino, California, in 2013. Please note that Chow apparently conspired to kill Tong while the FBI was wining, dining and slipping him envelopes of cash -- and while he was wearing an ankle bracelet. Prosecutors taped conversations of "Jordan" slipping cash to Chow. If the FBI had moved faster and hadn't been engaging in a fishing expedition for big-name co-defendants, Chow could have been behind bars in 2013. Federal law enforcement seemed so determined to present a high-profile case that it didn't put public safety first. Fortunately for the law enforcement professionals who participated in this debacle, willful incompetence is not a crime.
Kudos to the prosecution. It’s not everyday that you have the tong equivalent of John Gotti convicted.
i have to read up on Tong.
and i hate bad Chow :)
Gotti was a bad man gut threw a great fireworks show in Queens.
His son Jr. eats at my friend’s restaurant every now and then.
i think he was tried four times? i guess they gave up.
my friend defended him and said you wouldn’t believe what the government throws at you, with their unlimited resources.
makes it hard to believe they ever lose a case, but they do.
Gotti had his neighbor, who ran over and killed his son, murdered in a quite horrific way. it was an accident.
i know it’s a free country, but if you live in NYC and you kill the next Don of the Gambino family, YOU MOVE.
AFTER you change your name, and erase your entire past. the FBI offered to help, he should have taken them up on it
The FBI offered to induct Gotti's neighbor into the WitSec program, and he rejected the offer? Talk about a Darwin Award winner.
DEFINITELY the darwin award.
i bet he was thinking “well, they’ll know its him so he wouldn’t dare do it!” he was wrong.
actually he was making preparations to move his family.
when you run over john gotti’s kid, at least back then, your preparations include honking the horn, getting the family in the car, and driving to the most Remote area in the US only stopping for gas and food, and THEN calling the FBI.
no cell phones then.
Given that Gotti died at 62 of throat cancer, you have to wonder if divine retribution is more than Sunday school preaching. I’m somewhat amused by the fact that he was beaten in prison.
ah, it wasn’t that cut and dry. they were out to kill him. had severe tooth infection they wouldn’t treat.
also threw him back in cell after chemo.
amnesty international wnated to fight on his behalf.
he said “#$ you”
he was cruel man, but was the real deal tough.
he was already suffering from the cancer when he lost the fight.
in his prime, it would have ended a different way.
should have not stopped paying the Aryans to protect him.
e thought he had enough mafioso around him at that point, but he was wrong.
head of the Aryan nation said Gotti wasn’t a punk. He was a tough guy. but WE run things in here.
Interesting. I took a quick look for articles on his passing. As usual, the NY Post had the goods:
http://nypost.com/2002/06/11/joh-gotti-dies-lonely-death-in-jail-cell/
very bad man but he wasnt a b....ch like these muslims at Guantanamo, crying at every little inconvenience and being let out early when they are TERRORISTS!!
gotti turned down amnesty international, knew he was a criminal and was paying the price, and did TEN years in isolation.
we treat terrorists much better.
that’s they the Godfather III was SO STUPID.
Michael falling apart. I know these guys. They NEVER REGRET what they have done. They are mostly sociopaths who would kill anyone but their mother if they had to.
there’s no guilt or change of heart.
He’s a fellow italian, but he made life hard on other Italians by making housing and construction more expensive for all of us.
but i’d say 90 plus percent of those killed were involved in the mafia one way or another.
unfortunately, some of those were FORCED to, the price of goin business in NYC.
that was the last Front Page Hit (Castellano) that we’ll ever see.
3rd generation is soft and more importantly, educated and leaving the family business.
But dont think they dont exist anymore.
three Staten Island delis were accused of being mob owned only last year.
Gotti was a bad guy who perhaps saw himself as a bad man. Muslim terrorists see themselves as the good guys. They're also raring to get back into action and earn themselves the 72 virgins. Both Bush and Obama wanted to release Gitmo prisoners as quickly as they could without getting the American public riled up because of foreign criticism. The EU isn't exactly lining up to defend imprisoned mafiosi.
The Godfather movies were entertaining, but I've read enough about real-life mafiosi to recognize that these were cleaned-up soap operatic versions of the real thing. I especially like how Coppola's nonsensical "keep your enemies closer" line has become a shibboleth just like the equally nonsensical non-existent Chinese saying "may you live in interesting times". Goodfellas is my favorite mob film. Henry Hill's role in murdering people is airbrushed, but everyone else is depicted like the murdering sociopaths they are.
like i said, they’re animals. worked with a bunch in a pizzeria when i was younger. have acquaintances and other who i know.
the Godfather did great some lines.
like anybody can be murdered.
we’re both part of the same hypocrisy, gangsters and congressmen.
women and children can afford to be careless, men cant. even in today’s world, that’s still quit true.
never let people outside of the family know what you’re thinking. I HATE when people put their own family down. it demeans them and everyone in the family.
dont interfere with the arguments of husbands and wives. good advice.
friends close, enemies closer? i DID always want to know what the one boss out of three at my job that hated me, was thinking. so i would make a lot of small talk and make believe i liked her. i found out she hated FR and was a flaming liberal lol.
hyman roth didn’t inquire about mo green’s death because it had nothing to do with business.
these guys really dont care who dies and oddly enough, vengeance isn’t in the big picture much. it’s about earning money.
it’s business, not personal. they guys i knew were COLD hearted. have to take care of seomthing? you do it. they didn’t get attached to the situation of the people involved. they didn’t care.
Goodfellas is basically the low level earners who act crazy and do anything, like the guys i knew.
The Godfather is about the Castellanos (though he was a TERRIBLE don) who live in 4 million dollar homes no staten island and dont get their hands dirty.
that’s why gotti was so loved by his element. he was just like them. the real deal.
had michael not killed a cop and the drug runner, he would have had no cred. doing that gave him respect so that people would follow his orders.
i’m italian, in case you haven’t guessed lol.
my family acquaintances are more the Godfather type. High up.
my pizzeria and neighborhood acquaintances were like goodfellas
i remember one time, the 7 hoods in the pizzeria reneged on a bet, and seven guys they screwed were coming to the pizzeria. they asked if i would back them up.
i said yes but i was out there door as soon as trouble started lol, if it did
instead, their higher ups had a sit down and straightened it out.
i had to call in a few favors when i had a vending machine route. but that’s a story for another day :)
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