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Boston Chinatown restaurant served as front for global money laundering scheme, DOJ says
Nextshark via Yahoo ^ | 08/01/2022 | Carl Samson

Posted on 08/01/2022 10:57:51 AM PDT by DFG

A family-owned restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown allegedly served as the headquarters of international money laundering and transmitting schemes that reaped tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from drug trafficking and the resale of Apple products.

Eight individuals have been indicted for their alleged roles in the schemes which were partly run at China Gourmet, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Former spouses Shi Rong Zhang, 48, and Qiu Mei Zeng, 47, co-own the restaurant.

Both Zhang and Zeng have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and unlicensed money transmitting. Zhang’s Hanover-based electronics store, Wonderful Electronics, has also been used as a front for illicit transactions, as per court documents.

Vincent Feng, 32; Da Zeng, 30; Wei Qing Zeng, 58; Xian Rong Zeng, 45 and Qiu Fang Zeng, 59, face the same charges. Additionally, Chengzou Liu, 36, was indicted on conspiracy to commit money laundering and possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: boston; chinagourmet; marijuana; moneylaundering
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To: DFG

The giveaway was that their egg foo was middle aged.

(At least I can be reasonably sure the Chinese take-out I frequent is not like this: they have been busy all the time for the last 20 years at least, and both their children went to our Lutheran school. I just wish their rice was koshihikari (Japanese), but you can’t have everything.)


21 posted on 08/01/2022 11:34:11 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Roadrunner383

If you ever go to Boston the North End is the Italian section.
There are a lot of great restaurants and bakeries/coffee shops.
Many of them only take cash. No credit cards, venmo or debit cards. Those are money laundering operations.

Up here in Nashua there used to be a Chinese restaurant that had a gambling hall in the basement. I never knew about it when it was open. Although, I ate lunch there many times($6.99 buffet). Apparently, all the off duty Nashua cops knew all about it and hung out there. It was one of the places where you had to knock on the door and know the password to get in. “Winner, winner, chicken dinner”


22 posted on 08/01/2022 11:39:50 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: DFG
Vincent Feng, 32; Da Zeng, 30; Wei Qing Zeng, 58; Xian Rong Zeng, 45 and Qiu Fang Zeng,

That reads like an aluminum pot tumbling down a flight of stairs.

23 posted on 08/01/2022 11:40:11 AM PDT by Islander7 (There is no septic system so vile, so filthy, the left won't drink from to further their agenda.)
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To: woodbutcher1963

The Mafia used to launder money thru Mom & Pop pizzerias. ....probably still do.................


24 posted on 08/01/2022 11:40:27 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: DFG

Was Sum Ting Wong there?


25 posted on 08/01/2022 11:44:58 AM PDT by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
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To: woodbutcher1963

Shocking that foreign nationals would even think to use a restaurant to launder money.

That is the domain of the Italians, at least in Boston. The cops probably got an anonymous tip somewhere along the line.

In most parts of Texas the Albanians own the “Italian” restaurants, and based on what I know of Albanian culture, I suspect that they don’t report their cash tips ... and then some.

There was an excellent noodle house in Southlake Texas that was closed when one of the owners was found to be laundering income from a massage parlor in Dallas.

While the noodles were really good, I never experienced THAT kind of a happy ending.


26 posted on 08/01/2022 11:48:38 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: DFG

The DOJ actually caught someone committing a crime? Miracle!


27 posted on 08/01/2022 11:49:34 AM PDT by EC Washington
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To: DFG

Did the DOJ have a ticket?


28 posted on 08/01/2022 11:49:44 AM PDT by keving (We the government )
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To: texas booster

This is from the article I posted above:

“One of the biggest busts in the case came in March when agents seized more than $250,000 of suspected marijuana proceeds being transported from New York to China Gourmet, according to officials. FBI agents said the cash was found stashed under piles of frozen meat product.”

This sounds similar to a scene out of the TV show “Breaking Bad”. Substitute “frozen meat product” for chicken and it is straight out of Breaking Bad.


29 posted on 08/01/2022 11:54:13 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: Taxman

If I were King of America, I would tase the Squad, then frogwalk them to an unairconditioned van and book them.


30 posted on 08/01/2022 11:54:30 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (The best slaves put their own chains on )
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To: woodbutcher1963

Restaurants typically have large cash deposits. If the owner adds 20% or 30% to the cash from other source, who would know? If you make the cash deposit $5000 instead of $4000 all year, you’ve legalized $300K in illegal profits.


31 posted on 08/01/2022 12:19:56 PM PDT by proxy_user
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To: DFG
...and the couriers were traveling on the Chinatown bus for $12. Wonder who was subsidizing that.

https://www.chinatown-bus.org/

32 posted on 08/01/2022 12:21:33 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: DFG

Gives a whole new meaning to Fortune Cookies.


33 posted on 08/01/2022 12:41:59 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: texas booster

We had another incident regarding the local Chinese restaurant here in Nashua about twenty years back. The guy who owned the restaurant came to work that day at 11am. Nobody was there. He went down the street to the house where all his workers lived.
He owned this house that all his employees lived in.
He found them tied up.

Apparently, non of these Chinese immigrants believed in banks. They literally kept their money in cash under the mattress so to speak. An Asian gang came up from the Chinatown section in Boston and had robbed them during the middle of the night.
Supposedly, they had taken well over $20K in cash.


34 posted on 08/01/2022 1:18:58 PM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: DFG

Confucius say man who laundry money come out in the wash.


35 posted on 08/01/2022 1:20:42 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 (t)
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To: Taxman

Taxman for PRES!

TAXAGA


36 posted on 08/01/2022 1:25:39 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob (My /s is more true than your /science (or you might mean /seance))
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To: woodbutcher1963

under piles of frozen meat product.”
= =

Is that really ‘bugs’?


37 posted on 08/01/2022 1:27:10 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob (My /s is more true than your /science (or you might mean /seance))
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To: Scrambler Bob

tastes like chicken


38 posted on 08/01/2022 1:42:30 PM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: DFG

Maybe...but how was the hui guo rou?


39 posted on 08/01/2022 1:48:03 PM PDT by Mashood
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To: Red Badger

“Everything in a Chinese restaurant takes 10 minutes.”

You laugh. Call in to our favorite Chinese takeout...every order, every time...”Be here 10 minute.”


40 posted on 08/01/2022 2:19:19 PM PDT by moovova
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