State Senator Leland Yee Arrested By Feds For Bribery

[Greg in LA]

Thanks for alerting us to this story Ayatollah.

It's interesting to see the corruption in Sacramento being revealed.

I don't suppose Yee's arrest had anything to do with the fact that the Asian State Assemblymen and Senators recently banded together and stopped the recent push to re initiate affirmative action race quota's in California Universities?
Maybe Yee's arrest was a sort of payback from the Hispanic Assemblymen to the Asian members for betraying "Hispanic" legislative interests in Sacramento?

My connection to the events of the recent battle, might be somewhat of a stretch, but I don't doubt that the culture of corruption in Sacramento reaches all area's and I don't believe payback is entirely beneath our Mexican legislators.

[LAPhil]

Not to sound disrespectful, but what does this have to do with illegal immigration?

[Ayatollahgondola]

Originally Posted by LAPhil

Not to sound disrespectful, but what does this have to do with illegal immigration?

Check his votes on driver's licenses for illegals, the SAFE act, and related, for one thing. Also, if you check our corporate statement, you'll see that SOS agenda also advocates for the 2nd amendment rights for California citizens.

[Greg in LA]

Ayatollah, what is Yee's voting record on driver's licenses for illegals, and the SAFE act?

I think it is interesting that you and I both think it is possible that Yee's arrest is a payback of some sort.

[Ayatollahgondola]

Originally Posted by Greg in LA

Ayatollah, what is Yee's voting record on driver's licenses for illegals, and the SAFE act?

I think it is interesting that you and I both think it is possible that Yee's arrest is a payback of some sort.

He voted in favor of the SAFE act, the TRUST Act, and more recently wrote a law to de-value the English language in commerce. That last bill would have allowed retailers of fish products to keep records in the language of their choice, complicating the enforcement efforts against poaching and selling poached fish. As it stands now, when the fish and wildlife people come to inspect, you have to provide receipts for the fish you purchased to sel in English. He thought that was too big of a burden for immigrants.

there's an update from me on this somewhere on the forum recently

[ilbegone]

Originally Posted by LAPhil

Not to sound disrespectful, but what does this have to do with illegal immigration?

None of this stuff happens in an isolated vacuum, it's not a one issue package.

There are many reasons to be rid of Leland Yee, just as there are many reasons to be rid of Obama (who's been spamming me lately beseeching for help in recruiting the reluctant to enroll in Obamacare).

Want immigration law enforced in California? Leland Yee and a whole host of his "progressive" buddies in Sacramento need to go, just as nationally Obama has to be neutralized or forced out along with his "progressive" buddies in Congress and the executive branch in order for immigration law to be enforced on a national level.

Yesterday I made a statement to a Tea Party group that they need to investigate "tough on crime" candidates they endorse, what is meant behind the rhetoric because if they don't they may wind up loosing their freedoms and rights. Both the right and the left need to be held accountable for their actions and both can be equally dangerous to the public welfare.

[REWHBLCAIN]

Ha ha, another one bites the dust

[Twoller]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/201.../#.UzceeahdV8E

FBI sting reveals Chinatown’s underworld
AP
MAR 29, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO – Beneath the strings of red paper lanterns and narrow alleyways of the nation’s oldest Chinatown lies a sinister underworld, according to an FBI criminal complaint that has stunned even those familiar with the neighborhood’s history of gambling houses, opium dens and gangland-style murders.

The federal charges, which allege a California lawmaker accepted money and campaign donations in exchange for providing official favors and helping broker an arms deal, cast harsh light on Chinatown’s tight-knit network of fraternal organizations and one of its most shadowy characters, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

Investigators say Chow is the leader — the “dragonhead” — of one of the most powerful Asian gangs in North America. Chow’s gang is said to have lured state Sen. Leland Yee into its clutches through money and campaign contributions in exchange for legislative help, as Yee sought to build his campaign coffers to run for California secretary of state.

Born in Hong Kong in 1960, Chow came to the United States at 16 and was reportedly nicknamed “Shrimp Boy” by his grandmother, in part due to his small stature.

After dropping out of high school, Chow rose within the ranks of the local Hop Sing Tong gang after he and his crew survived a 1977 shooting at a Chinatown restaurant that left five dead.

Chow then spent a few years inside San Quentin Prison for a robbery conviction, and after his release started working with the Hong Kong-based Wo Hop To triad, one of numerous Chinese underground societies linked to organized crime. Chow has admitted that as a gang leader, he ran prostitution rings, smuggled drugs and extorted thousands of dollars from business owners in the 1980s. “He was given like an unofficial position of being a leader, but to say he was sophisticated, no. He was more like a forceful brute,” said Ignatius Chinn, a former California Department of Justice agent who spent years investigating Chow in the early 1990s. “If he didn’t get his way, he would just beat the door down and that was how we put cases on him.”

Although he ultimately was convicted of gun charges and sentenced to 25 years to life in the 1990s, Chow cut a deal to win release and returned to Chinatown several years ago, pledging to stay straight. His work with at-risk youth soon won accolades from prominent politicians. But the complaint alleges that Chow used his position as the dragonhead of the Ghee Kung Tong to launder money, receive and transport stolen property and traffic in contraband cigarettes during an FBI sting.

The pre-dawn FBI raid Wednesday at Ghee Kung Tong’s office, next to a massage parlor and across from a benevolent society where elderly people play mahjong, also brought into focus its centuries-old history. The tong, or family association, was founded in the late 1880s to support immigrants from Hong Kong and elsewhere in the Pearl Delta region.

On Wednesday morning, federal agents and fire crews stormed the building to crack a safe that authorities say was at least a century old.

The organization is among dozens of active tongs in Chinatown, and Chow assumed control when its former president, Allen Leung, was shot to death by a masked gunman in 2006, said David Lee, director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee.

“He kind of became like a gangster celebrity. He was on parole, he had an ankle bracelet and he became a fixture at political events for a while,” said Lee.

The 137-page complaint does not reveal whether Yee had any connection to Chow before the FBI got involved.

Yee, a progressive Democrat born in China, built his political fortune partly through Chinatown connections and had never lost a race until his failed bid for San Francisco mayor in 2011.

A few years before that, Chow’s own political star began rising. Around 2008, he began meeting with at-risk youth to talk with kids about how to stay on the straight and narrow. Soon, the awards started coming. Chow was lauded by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California for his work as a former offender who had become a community role model, and praised by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee for his “willingness to give back to the community.” He posted pictures of himself on Facebook with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

All the while he was running a criminal operation, according to court documents.

Several years ago, undercover FBI agents assigned to Chow infiltrated the organization and snared Yee and his campaign consultant, Keith Jackson. The three were arrested Wednesday during a series of raids in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area that also netted additional members of the tong.

[LAPhil]

I apologize for my ignorance at the beginning of this thread because at that time I had no idea who this guy was. Now that he's been in the news I think this is fantastic. We need to get rid of a few more like him (or maybe a lot more).

[Greg in LA]

What a great story this is. Leland Yee, corrupt Democrat, trying to ban guns for Americans, and selling them to gangsters. Yee partnering with gangsters, and Yee's gangster friends getting awards and accolades from Diane Feinestein, and Gavin Newsom.

Can you believe Senator Feinestein and Mayor Newsom giving awards to gang members at the same time they work so hard to marginalize and cripple American interests. Sometimes life really is stranger than fiction.