A federal judge sentenced tong leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow to two life terms in prison Thursday based on his conviction of running the Chee Kung Tong as a racketeering enterprise and two murders, including the tong’s former leader in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
The federal jury convicted Chow in January on all 162 counts or a racketeering conspiracy and the 2006 murder of his predecessor. The murder conviction carried a mandatory life sentence.
Chow, 56, was one of 26 people indicted in 2014, including former state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, following a five-year FBI investigation.
Yee, and his political consultant and former president of the San Francisco School Board, Keith Jackson, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge. Yee had been accused of conspiracy to accept bribes and attempting to traffic in firearms. He was sentenced to five years in prison and Jackson was sentenced to nine years.
Chow and 26 others had turned the group into a racketeering enterprise that engaged in intimidation, threats and money laundering, trafficking in firearms and murder.
Chow, once praised as a reformed gang leader by San Francisco politicians following his 2003 prison release, was convicted of ordering the killing of the head of the Chee Kung Tong, Allen Leung, clearing the way for Chow to assume power as “Dragonhead” of the group.
He was also convicted of conspiracy to murder a rival, Jim Tat Kong, five counts of trafficking in stolen alcohol and cigarettes and 154 counts of money laundering.
Case: U.S. v. Chow, No. 14-196
TrialInsider.com 