California state Sen. Leland Yee. AP FILE PHOTO
SAN FRANCISCO—Chinatown gangsters, gun-smuggling, Muslim rebels in the Philippines and a shady character called “Shrimp Boy.”
Oh, and envelopes full of cash from mobsters.
It may sound like the plot of a cable television mini-series, but US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents say it’s the real tale of a California state senator willing to do nearly anything for campaign cash.
Appearing in a San Francisco federal courthouse on Tuesday, now-suspended senator Leland Yee pleaded not guilty to bribery and gun-running charges that could land him behind bars for life.
Yee is the highest profile of 29 defendants ensnared in an FBI sting that initially targeted the gang underworld of San Francisco’s Chinatown before taking a surprising detour into political corruption.
Desperate politician
In addition to being accused of accepting cash for political favors, Yee, a Democrat and a gun-control advocate, is charged with plotting to smuggle guns from the Philippines.
A 137-page arrest warrant affidavit portrays Yee as desperate to pay down campaign debt.
That desperation allegedly led him to approach a man he believed to be a Mafia member—actually an undercover FBI agent—with a surprising proposal: He could get the mobster guns from overseas.
At first Yee said the weapons would probably come from Russia, though he noted “the Muslim countries” were also a possible source, according to the FBI.
The conversation later shifted to the Philippines, and Yee allegedly introduced a friend who would be the US contact for the arms deal: 60-year-old Filipino-American dentist William Sy Lim.
According to the FBI, Yee and his dentist friend concocted a plan: The “mobster” would give a list of desired weapons to Lim.
Lim, accompanied by Yee, would travel to the Philippines and hand-deliver the list to Lim’s nephew, whom they said was arming Muslim rebels in Mindanao. The nephew would procure the weapons from a Philippine military captain.
‘Corrupt country’
Yee allegedly described the Philippines as “a very corrupt country” and said the government was secretly arming the rebels despite a recent peace treaty in order to distract the public from corruption within the government.
The FBI sting that has ended Yee’s career initially targeted a man known as Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, described in the affidavit as using his position as “dragonhead” of a local Chinatown tong, or family association, to oversee a criminal enterprise more focused on money laundering than helping the community.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday said the National Bureau of Investigation is making a “discreet” check into Yee, to “verify” his reported plan to travel to the Philippines.
What the NBI has found so far is that Yee has been to the country once, said De Lima but declined to elaborate, saying she could not disclose anything more.—AFP with Christine Avendaño