'Shrimp Boy' accuses San Francisco mayor Ed Lee of taking bribes
The mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee, has been hit with allegations of corruption, after attorneys for former gang member Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow argued that the mayor and other city officials have been given a pass while Chow is being prosecuted on racketeering charges arising from an FBI investigation.
Chow is now the leader of Ghee Kung Tong, a community organization in the city’s Chinatown. Yet, prosecutors claim Ghee Kung Tong is a criminal enterprise involved in drug trafficking, stolen goods and guns. Chow, who served time in federal prison but has since publicly renounced his life of crime, has pleaded not guilty.
According to filings by Chow’s lawyers, their client is facing a “selective” prosecution regarding an FBI investigation that revealed illegal campaign donations allegedly made to mayoral candidates in 2011. In that year, Lee was appointed mayor when incumbent Gavin Newsom ran for deputy governor of California. Lee won the subsequent mayoral election.
The lawyers for Chow – Tony Serra, Curtis Briggs and Greg Bentley – have filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him on the grounds that the selective choices made by prosecutors to bring forward charges against him as opposed to politicians is reasons for the case’s dismissal.
“Specifically,” the filing states, “the FBI alleged in discovery that Ed Lee took substantial bribes in exchange for favors and that [San Francisco] human rights commissioners Nazly Mohajer and Zula Jones hustled in these bribes for the mayor.
“The United States attorney asked for a Rico [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] charge on [former school board president] Keith Jackson and [state senator] Leland Yee for similar conduct. Lee, Mohajer and Jones remain unindicted.”
The motion also alleges that undercover FBI agents contributed illegally to campaigns in the city.
The filing states: “The FBI shipped truckloads of fake stolen liquor and cigarettes across the country, contracted murder for hire on fake people, and agents paraded around with $20,000 watches posing as nouveau multi-cultural La Cosa Nostra.”
Mohajer and Jones did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On 1 July, Yee, Jackson, Jackson’s son Brandon and sports agent Marlon Sullivan pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering and bribery.
Lee, speaking on local TV station KPIX 5 on Tuesday evening, said the allegations “almost read like a comic book” and said he did not recall meeting Chow or other individuals related to the case.
“I do not recall any specific meetings with folks,” he said, adding: “Meeting people is one thing, doing something that is inappropriate is completely different, and we have always been very thorough on that.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to an enquiry from the Guardian.
The former San Francisco supervisor David Chiu, now a state assemblyman, has also been thrown into the fray. The filing by Chow’s lawyers alleges that in 2009, Chiu wore a wire for the FBI, as part of the bureau’s investigation of Chow.
That year Chiu, who as a supervisor represented San Francisco’s Chinatown, called for funding related to Ghee Kung Tong to be pulled. That led to Chow paying for a full-page newspaper advertisement that called Chiu “a corpse eating a vegetarian dinner”, and threatening legal action.
On Tuesday, Chiu’s office told the Guardian only that he “hopes the truth will come through and people will learn the facts”.
The accusations have left many in city government concerned over the role money now plays in campaigns, and have reportedly led district attorney George Gascón and city attorney Dennis Herrera to open an investigation of their own.
Neither would confirm to the Guardian that such an investigation had been opened.
“We are unable to confirm or deny that an investigation is happening,” Gascón’s spokesman, Alex Bastian, said on Wednesday.
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