.
An arms trafficking arrest of a gun control advocate, various indictments have cost Calif. Democrats their St. Senate super majority:
3/26/14, "FBI conducts raids targeting elected officials in three states," Washington Post, Reid Wilson
"Federal law enforcement officials arrested two public officials in
California and North Carolina and raided the office of a New York state
senator in connection with separate corruption investigations on
Wednesday.
Hundreds of federal agents conducted searches of offices around the
San Francisco Bay Area and arrested several people on Tuesday, including
state Sen. Leland Yee (D) and a former head of a Hong Kong-based crime
syndicate, as part of a major public corruption probe.
Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon (D) was arrested Wednesday and charged with theft and bribery
after an FBI sting operation, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. The
mayor, first elected in November after serving for two decades on the
Charlotte city council, allegedly solicited and accepted bribes from
undercover FBI agents.
And in New York, FBI agents raided Assemblyman William Scarborough’s
(D) offices and questioned Scarborough at his Albany hotel room.
Scarborough told reporters the FBI asked questions about per diem reimbursements he received during his service in the state legislature.
Spokesmen for the FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately return calls and e-mails seeking comment.
The arrests come just days after federal agents raided the home and offices
of Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox (D), as part of an
investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office, the FBI, the IRS and Rhode
Island state police. Fox resigned his position on Friday and dropped his
bid for reelection.
In California, FBI agents arrived to search Yee’s Capitol office in
Sacramento at 7 a.m., while hundreds of federal and local law
enforcement personnel searched locations around San Francisco and San
Mateo, local media reported.
Local media outlets reported that the investigation targeted Raymond
“Shrimp Boy” Chow, whom federal officials have accused of being one of
the U.S.-based leaders of the Wo Hop To crime syndicate, based in Hong
Kong. Investigators raided the Gee King Tong Free Masons offices in
Chinatown, which Chow runs.
Chow had been convicted of gun charges in the 1990s, but was released
from prison after cooperating with federal officials seeking to
investigate another leader of a prominent Chinatown gang.
Yee, the first Chinese American elected to the California state
Senate, is among several candidates running for Secretary of State. His
campaign spokesman and chief of staff both declined to answer questions
from local media outlets.
Yee is also the third California state senator, all Democrats, to be tied to corruption investigations
this year. Last month, state Sen. Ron Calderon (D) was indicted on
bribery charges, and in January, state Sen. Roderick Wright (D) was
convicted on eight counts of voter fraud and perjury, after being
indicted in 2010.
Calderon and Wright have taken indefinite leaves of absence from the
state Senate, costing Democrats their super majority status and
threatening key elements of the party’s platform. State Senate President
Darrell Steinberg’s spokesman told the San Jose Mercury News
Steinberg wasn’t ready to comment on Yee’s arrest, though Democrats
have blocked Republican-led efforts to oust Calderon and Wright in
recent weeks.
In a statement released Wednesday morning, U.S. Attorney Anne
Tompkins, of the Western District of North Carolina, said Cannon had
been under investigation since 2010, when federal officials received
tips that the then-city council member was “involved in illegal
activities associated with his position as an elected official.”
A criminal complaint filed Wednesday accuses Cannon of accepting
bribes from undercover FBI agents on five occasions, including as
recently as last month, when he allegedly accepted $20,000 in cash in
the mayor”s office. Cannon allegedly took more than $48,000 in cash,
airline tickets, a hotel room and a luxury apartment “in exchange for
the use of his official position,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a
statement.
Cannon was elected in November to replace Anthony Foxx, who resigned as mayor to become the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
In Albany, Scarborough told reporters FBI agents had implied he would
be indicted, apparently over travel vouchers he submitted for
reimbursement. Scarborough submitted vouchers worth $825 for a
five-night stay in Albany earlier this month, Capital New York reported,
when his public schedule showed he attended a town meeting in Jamaica
Queens. In a statement, Richard Hartunian, U.S. District Attorney for
the Northern District of New York, said Scarborough had not been
charged, but that an investigation was ongoing.
Two New York state senators, John Sampson and Malcolm Smith, are under federal indictment on corruption charges."
===================
=============================
3/26/14, "State Sen. Leland Yee indicted on arms trafficking, corruption charges," Mercury News, by Josh Richman, Howard Mintz, Jessica Calefati and Robert Salonga
"In a
stunning criminal complaint, State Sen. Leland Yee has been charged with
conspiring to traffic in firearms and public corruption as part of a
major FBI operation spanning the Bay Area, casting yet another cloud of
corruption over the Democratic establishment in the Legislature and
torpedoing Yee's aspirations for statewide office.
Yee and an
intermediary allegedly met repeatedly with an undercover FBI agent,
soliciting campaign contributions in exchange for setting up a deal with
international arms dealers.
At their first face-to-face meeting
in January, "Senator Yee explained he has known the arms dealer for a
number of years and has developed a close relationship with him," an FBI
affidavit says, noting Yee told the agent the arms dealer "has things
that you guys want."
Yee, D-San Francisco,
highlights a series of arrests Wednesday morning that included infamous
Chinatown gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, whose past includes a
variety of charges including racketeering and drug crimes. Targets of
the early-morning raids appeared in federal court in San Francisco on
Wednesday afternoon.
A 137-page criminal complaint charges 26
people -- including Yee and Chow -- with a panoply of crimes, including
firearms trafficking, money laundering, murder-for-hire, drug
distribution, trafficking in contraband cigarettes, and honest services
fraud.
Yee is charged with conspiracy to traffic in firearms
without a license and to illegally import firearms, as well as six
counts of scheming to defraud citizens of honest services. Each
corruption count is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and a
fine of up to $250,000, while the gun-trafficking count is punishable
by up to five years and $250,000.
The charges are particularly
shocking given that Yee has been among the state Senate's most outspoken
advocates both of gun control and of good-government initiatives.
"It
seems like nobody knew this was coming, and everyone is astounded by
the allegations," said Corey Cook, director of the University of San
Francisco's Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common
Good. "I'm just astonished...Political corruption is one thing, but
this is a whole other level."
San Francisco political consultant
Keith Jackson, a former school-board president, allegedly was the link
between Yee and Chow, who federal prosecutors say is the current
"Dragonhead," or leader, of the San Francisco-based Ghee Kung Tong
organization, spelled in court documents as Chee Kung Tong.
Chow
introduced an undercover agent who had infiltrated his organization to
Jackson, who with his son, Brandon Jackson, and another man, Marlon
Sullivan, allegedly sold the agent various guns and bulletproof vests.
The Jacksons and Sullivan also allegedly conspired in a murder-for-hire
scheme requested by the undercover agent, as well as other crimes
including sale of stolen credit cards and purchase of cocaine.
An
FBI affidavit says Keith Jackson starting last August told one of the
undercover agents that Yee was "associated with a person who was an
international arms dealer who was shipping large stockpiles of weapons
into a foreign country." At later meetings in August and December,
Jackson said Yee had agreed to help set up an arms deal; the agent first
gave Jackson $1,000 cash for his help, and later cut a $5,000 check
from a bogus company to Yee's campaign.
Finally, Yee and Keith Jackson met Jan. 22 with the undercover agents at a San Francisco coffee shop, the affidavit says.
"According
to Senator Yee, the arms dealer is 'low-key' and has been trafficking
weapons for quite a while," the document says. "According to Senator
Yee, the arms dealer sourced the weapons from Russia."
"Senator
Yee said of the arms dealer, 'He's going to rely on me, because
ultimately it's going to be me,'" the affidavit says. "Senator Yee said,
'I know what he could do. I have seen what he has done in the past on
other products and this guy has the relationships.' Senator Yee
emphasized that the arms dealer took baby steps and was very careful."
Yee told the agent that
the arms dealer had contacts in Russia, Ukraine, Boston and Southern
California, the affidavit says, and the agent asked Yee for a
commitment. "Senator Yee said, 'Do I think we can make some money? I
think we can make some money. Do I think we can get the goods? I think
we can get the goods.'"
The agent told Yee and Jackson he wanted
any type of shoulder-fired weapons or missiles, the affidavit says; Yee
asked whether he wanted automatic weapons, and the agent confirmed he
did -- about $500,000 to $2.5 million worth. Yee told the agent "he saw
their relationship as tremendously beneficial," the affidavit says,
adding he wanted the agent and Jackson to make all the money because he
didn't want to go to jail. The agent replied he would pay Yee and
Jackson hundreds of thousands of dollars over time, and more immediately
would pay $100,000 for the first arms deal. "Senator Yee said 'Alright,
take care.' The meeting ended."
But by their next meeting on Feb.
25, Yee had grown spooked by the federal indictment of state Sen.
Ronald Calderon; the two shared a desk on the Senate floor. "Senator Yee
thought the other state Senator was a classic example of involving too
many people in illegal activities," the affidavit says. Pressured by the
agent to arrange an arms deal, Yee encouraged the agent "to start off
doing small deals with the arms dealer" with Yee as an intermediary.
"Senator
Yee stated he was unhappy with his life and said, 'There is a part of
me that wants to be like you. You know how I'm going to be like you?
Just be a free-agent out there,'" the affidavit says, adding Yee told
the agent "he wanted to hide out in the Philippines."
The agent
met again with Yee on March 5, and Yee discussed a new potential arms
dealer named Wilson Lim. The agent said his family in New Jersey wanted
to support Yee's bid for Secretary of State, to which Yee responded, "I
can be of help to you for 10 months or I can be of help to you for eight
years. I think eight years is a lot better than 10 months."
Yee
discussed specific locations in the Philippines and Florida that might
be ideal for moving the guns, which he said would include M-16-type
automatic rifles.
Yee, Jackson, Lim and the agent met again March
11; Yee said the arms deal wouldn't be done until after this year's
elections. "Senator Yee explained, 'Once things start to move, it's
going to attract attention. We just got to be extra-extra careful.'"
Finally,
they all met March 14, where they discussed how they would break up the
undercover agent's money into legitimate campaign donations. The agent
told Yee he was prepared to give Yee $6,800 cash and a list of weapons
he wanted; Yee replied "he would take the cash and have one of his
children write out a check."
Yee ran for mayor of San Francisco in
2011 and now is a candidate for California Secretary of State. But the
criminal complaint likely ruins his candidacy and further threatens
Democrats' efforts to restore their state Senate supermajority that
already has been broken by two other lawmakers' paid leaves of absence
to deal with criminal charges.
Keith Jackson and Yee from 2011
until now allegedly solicited donations from undercover FBI agents in
exchange for official acts and conspired to traffic firearms, the
complaint says. Starting in May 2011, Jackson solicited an undercover
FBI agent to give money to Yee's mayoral campaign, including asking the
agent for donations in excess of the $500 individual donation limit. The
agent refused, but introduced Jackson and Yee to a purported business
associate -- another undercover agent -- who they also solicited for at
least $5,000.
Yee's mayoral election loss left him with $70,000 in
debt, the complaint says, and so Yee and Jackson allegedly agreed that
Yee would call a California Department of Public Health manager in
support of a contract under consideration with the second undercover
agent's purported client, and would provide an official letter of
support for the client, in exchange for a $10,000 campaign donation. Yee
allegedly made the call on Oct. 18, 2012, and provided the letter on or
about Jan. 13, 2013; Jackson allegedly accepted the $10,000 cash
donation on Nov. 19, 2012.
Yee had yet to appear before the judge
as of 3 p.m., but earlier in the afternoon the judge ordered Chow be
held without bail. Government attorneys called him a flight risk and
danger to the community, citing his criminal history. Chow's lawyer
objected saying that Chow has been fighting with immigration authorities
to stay in the United States.
Chow is not a U.S. citizen. He is
being represented by public defender and lives in San Francisco with his
girlfriend. He has been on electronic monitoring since he's been out of
prison and seeking legal immigration stays, even during the current
investigation.
FBI agents and local police served arrest and
search warrants throughout the Bay Area, with agents seen in San
Francisco and San Mateo and Yee's Capitol office in Sacramento. One of
the searches was at the San Francisco Chinatown office of the Ghee Kung
Tong Free Masons and is linked to Chow's arrest.
Outside that
building on Spofford Street -- a Chinatown alley between Clay and
Washington streets -- FBI Special Agent Michael Gimbel would say only
that "the FBI is executing numerous search warrants around the Bay
Area."
San Francisco firefighters carried a heavy rotary saw into
the building late Wednesday morning; neighbors said they believe there's
a safe inside the building. Federal agents removed about 10 boxes of
documents and several bags of material from the building at about 12:30
p.m., and the FBI left the scene soon after that.
Federal law
enforcement officials have been chasing Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow for
decades, branding him one of the longtime Bay Area leaders of a Hong
Kong-based criminal syndicate called the Wo Hop To. Chow's criminal rap
sheet dates back to 1978, and includes federal racketeering indictments
that have alleged attempted murder, murder-for-hire, gun trafficking and
other crimes....
During an afternoon press conference, State Senate
President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said "Leland Yee
should leave the Senate and leave it now."
Yee represents San
Francisco and a portion of San Mateo County. Before becoming the first
Chinese-American ever elected to the state Senate in 2006, Yee was an
assemblyman from 2002 to 2006; a San Francisco supervisor from 1997 to
2002; and had been a member and president of the San Francisco Unified
School District board. While in the Assembly, he was the first
Asian-American to be named Speaker pro Tempore, essentially making him
the chamber's second-most-powerful Democrat.
That power would have
been exercised this year in Yee's run for Secretary of State against
state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys; Democrat Derek Cressman; Republican
Pete Peterson; and nonpartisan Dan Schnur.
Upon pulling his
candidacy papers in February, Yee issued a news release saying it was
time for a Secretary of State "who will expand access to the ballot box,
make our government more transparent, and strengthen California's
democracy."
"I am committed to empowering Californians so that
they can guarantee fair elections, expose special interests and prevent
corruption, because it's your California," Yee said at the time.
Yee campaign spokesman Joaquin Ross declined to comment Wednesday morning, saying he would have to call back.
Yee
is the state's third Democratic legislator recently targeted in
corruption allegations. In February, State Sen. Ron Calderon,
D-Montebello, surrendered to authorities after being indicted on bribery
charges. In January, state Sen. Roderick Wright, D-Inglewood, was
convicted of voter fraud and perjury stemming from a 2010 indictment.
Cressman,
who until last June was vice president of the nonpartisan government
watchdog group Common Cause, Wednesday morning said that charges against
Yee must be "a wake-up call" given other Senate Democrats' legal
problems.
"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. "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."
Schnur, a
longtime GOP campaign strategist who more recently served as chairman of
the state Fair Political Practices Commission and directed the
University of Southern California's Unruh Institute of Politics, said
news of Yee's arrest "is yet another in a series of reminders of why
Californians have so little trust in their elected officials.
"My
hope is that this will prompt the Legislature to take much more
aggressive and meaningful action to fix a broken political system than
they have been willing to do to date," Schnur said.
Yee emigrated
to San Francisco from China at age 3; his father was a veteran who
served in the Army and the merchant marine. Yee earned a bachelor's
degree from UC Berkeley; a master's degree from San Francisco State
University; and a doctorate in child psychology at the University of
Hawaii. He and his wife, Maxine, have four children.
Rep. Jackie
Speier, D-Hillsborough, served with Yee for several years in the
Legislature but was never close to him. She said the senator is innocent
until proven guilty but called the allegations "regrettable."
"It's
always sad for all of us in the profession," said Speier, "to see
individuals who lose sight of what the public trust is all about."" via Rush Limbaugh.
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