SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A dapper former San Francisco gang leader who presented himself as a reformed criminal was the focus of a lengthy organized crime investigation in Chinatown that ended up snaring a corrupt California senator and more than two dozen others.
With opening statements in Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow’s case scheduled Monday, prosecutors finally will get their chance to convict him of racketeering, murder and money laundering charges that could put him away for life.
A conviction would all but close out a colorful case featuring an undercover FBI agent who posed as a member of the mafia and plied his targets in Chinatown – the heart of one of San Francisco’s most popular tourist attractions – with fancy meals, liquor and cash.
Chow’s attorneys, led by veteran San Francisco lawyer Tony Serra, plan to make the trial a referendum on the multi-year government probe they say was a costly fishing expedition that induced innocent people into crime.
“History will show that this prosecution was the most shocking of all time,” Curtis Briggs, another Chow attorney, wrote in a court filing Wednesday seeking to dismiss the case for “outrageous government conduct.” ”The FBI attacked democracy, the right to vote, the people’s voice, and spat in the eye of the legislature.”