Former Asan crime expert pleads guilty to taking bribes

SCREEN CAPTURE / CBS

HARRY HU

ASAM NEWS

A WELL KNOWN retired Oakland, California police officer and organized Asian crime investigator has pleaded guilty to taking bribes to help a confidential informant avoid prosecution, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

Federal court documents show that Harry Hu received free trips to Reno and Las Vegas complete with paid escorts while protecting his informant from double murder charges in Mendocino County. Hu served as an investigator with the Alameda County District Attorney’s office until last month.

According to NBC Bay Area , the gang member he protected, Wing Wo Ma, aka “Fat Mark, is now facing an indictment for the murders of Jim Kat Kong and Cindy Chen. Prosecutors say the murders were ordered by Asian gang leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

Hu served in the Oakland police department from 1981 to 2007, when he joined the DA’s office.

“Former Inspector Harry Hu has brought shame on himself, on the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the Oakland Police Department, as well as on the justice system,” District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said to the Mercury News. 

“When a public official, especially one entrusted with upholding the law as Harry Hu was, breaks that trust, it strikes a hard blow against the hard working and ethical professionals of the District Attorney’s Office.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Inside look at a Chinatown crime syndicate

Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow

ASAM NEWS

A PLEA BARGAIN struck with five associates of convicted Chinatown crime boss Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow provides a revealing glimpse of the crime syndicate.

SF Gate reports Gary Kwong Yiu Chen and Anthony John Lai, both of San Francisco, admitted in their plea bargain that they laundered $635,000 of drug money from October to December 2013 alone.

Tong Zao Zhang of Brooklyn said he avoided paying almost $300,000 in taxes by distributing contraband cigarettes on the black market.

Bryan Tilton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transporting $30,000 worth of purportedly stolen Hennessy XO alcohol with Chow across state lines. Prosecutors said their big break in the case came when Tilton tried to sell his stolen goods to an undercover FBI agents.

A fifth defendant, Xiu Ying Ling “Elaine” Liang, plead guilty to money laundering charges.

All five men are scheduled to be sentenced beginning in April.

Prosecutors believe Chow was the man in charge of the whole criminal enterprise. A jury last January found him guilty of ordering the murder of Allen Leung, the man he replaced as the head of the Ghee Kung Tong. Despite Chow's insistance on his innocence, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.