Another serving of “Shrimp Boy,” years later, in today’s headlines, as the SF Sheriff’s Office has rehired a deputy who admitted lying to the FBI over lending a Shrimp Boy-affiliated hired hitman his department-issued bulletproof vest.

It’s been a while since we heard much about the very photogenic mid-2010’s SF Chinatown gangster Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, whose racketeering and murder case brought down SF’s state Senator Leland Yee, nearly ensnared then-Mayor Ed Lee for bribery, and even led to the FBI investigating Joe Montana. SFist delighted in reporting these developments, though honestly, it seemed a little troubling that someone so deeply involved with violent organized crime had so many friends in high places.    

These days, Shrimp Boy is still serving his life sentence in prison. Though he is apparently still able to be on Facebook, and he posts every couple of weeks. His latest post says, “I'm excited for November. Some things are happening, but don't want to say, don't want to jinx it. So, please continue to pray for me.”

Shrimp Boy is almost certainly not referring to a bombshell story in the Chronicle today that SF Sheriff Paul Yamamoto intervened to get a deputy rehired after he lied to the FBI to protect one of Shrimp Boy’s hired hitmen. That deputy is Sergeant Michael Kim, who was let go by the department in 2016 before he was about to be sentenced to three years probation.    

The full story goes back more than ten years, so let’s unpack this. The so-called hired hitman was not Shrimp Boy himself, but Shrimp Boy’s bodyguard Andy Li. Li does not have a catchy nickname like many members of Shrimp Boy’s “Hop Sing Gang” had. Li was allegedly ordered to kill Shrimp Boy rival Kongphet “Fat Joe” Chanthavong in 2013, though eventually turned on Shrimp Boy once the feds were prosecuting, and took a plea deal on his own racketeering charges.

Though when Li was still Shrimp Boy’s “bodyguard” (a job that apparently also involved breaking people’s legs and committing arson) he was given an SF Sheriff’s Office-issued bulletproof vest. And he was given that vest by Sergeant Michael Kim, who first told the FBI that he forgot the vest at Li’s wife’s beauty salon, and then told them that he lent Li the vest because Li was a nightclub bouncer and maybe he could have used it on the job. Neither of those stories was true.

Kim resigned from the Sheriff’s Office in 2016, and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor contempt of court charge in 2018. He got a $30,000 fine and was sentenced to three years of probation, but that was reduced to two years for good behavior.

Once his probation was over, Kim tried to get his job at the sheriff’s department back. But two psychologists found him “not suitable,” what with the whole lying to the FBI to protect gangsters thing, and Kim also had a sexual harassment charge against him.

Yet the Chronicle reported in December that Kim had somehow been rehired by the Sheriff’s Office. Though the new revelation here is that Sheriff Paul Yamamoto intervened to get Kim rehired, via a recommendation letter.

“Mike was a team leader and performed exceptionally well during critical incidents and highly stressful situations,” Yamamoto said in his undated resignation letter, whose authenticity has been confirmed to the Chronicle. “I have no concerns at this time of bringing him back as a member of the Sheriff's Office.

Though the Chronicle adds that Kim was rehired “over the objections of his undersheriff and assistant sheriff and a captain.” And there’s a state agency called the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) that may yet disbar Kim from working in law enforcement.

“Through his lies, [Kim] attempted to help gain the release of a man from prison that a court deemed dangerous to the community based on his own admitted role as enforcer for an organized crime syndicate who dealt drugs, laundered money, and trafficked in weapons,” POST consultant and retired FBI agent Kevin Sherburne wrote. “(Kim) cannot be effective as a peace officer because he is not honest.”

That very same POST commission will hold a hearing on Thursday, in which Sergeant Kim could be decertified from serving as a Califrnia law enforcement officer.

Related: The Feds Spent Over $1 Million Wining And Dining Shrimp Boy [SFist]

Image: Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow (周國祥) via Facebook