Prosecutors in the federal racketeering case against Raymond 'Shrimp Boy' Chow said during a court hearing Monday that they have evidence that Shrimp Boy arranged the murder of 56-year-old Allen Leung, who was shot to death by a masked gunman in 2006. Leung was Chow's predecessor as head of the Ghee Kung Tong "community organization" in Chinatown, and Chow stepped into his shoes six months after the murder, as the Chron is reporting.
Chinatown's tongs or brotherhoods are secretive organizations that prosecutors are looking to paint as organized crime gangs, and Shrimp Boy stand accused of running guns and drugs through the Ghee Kung Tong since becoming "Dragonhead" in 2006. Though he's not being charged with murder, at least not yet, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Frenzen told a federal judge that the evidence they have that Chow solicited Leung's murder should be admissible because "this was how he asserted power." It shows, he says, that "Mr. Chow did not take over the [tong] because of his business acumen."
The prosecution also has evidence, they say, that Chow at least tried to solicit the murder of another tong member, Jim Tat Kong, who was part of the Hop Sing Tong (of which Leung was also a member), who later turned up dead along with his wife in Mendocino County. Authorities ruled their deaths a double-suicide at the time.
This is all part of a public filing, as the Examiner reports, in response to the defense's request for suppression of all mentions of Leung's death in connection with the racketeering case.
Chow's defense attorney calls the prosecution's move a "farce" and says they have "no evidence."
Earlier this month, Chow's co-defendants in the case all took plea deals, and Chow's trial date is currently set for November 2.
