Skip to footer

Role of undercover FBI agent under scrutiny in 'Shrimp Boy' Chow trial

An undercover agent is on the stand for the second day Wednesday to share his testimony against Raymond Chow. 

|
Jeff Chiu/AP/File
Tony Serra (r.) an attorney for Raymond 'Shrimp Boy' Chow (pictured l.) listens to speakers at a news conference in San Francisco, April 10, 2014. Chow, a dapper former San Francisco gang leader who portrayed 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.

An undercover FBI agent involved in a multi-year organized crime investigation in San Francisco’s Chinatown took the stand for the second day Wednesday in the murder and racketeering trial of Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

Mr. Chow, leader of a Chinese fraternal group Ghee Kung Tong, is standing trial on charges of murder for hire and running a “racketeering enterprise that engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering.”

However, defense lawyers are looking to put the undercover agent on trial for “plying [Chow] with drinks and handing him envelopes of cash.”

The FBI agent has lived under the pseudonym David Jordan for the past three years, posing as a “vulgar, racist member of an East Coast crime syndicate that was involved in illegal sports betting and marijuana cultivation and needed help laundering money,” reported the Associated Press.

According to his testimony, the agent spent hours with Chow and his connections building a case against Chow and over two dozen others. Mr. Jordan’s investigation also led to the conviction of former California senator, Leland Yee, who pleaded guilty to racketeering in July. Mr. Yee was fined $250,000 and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Under the pseudonym, the undercover agent also engaged in money laundering and other criminal activity in an attempt to gain Chow’s trust. Jordan explained he “felt a constant threat for his safety as he had little back up,” reported the San Francisco Examiner. 

The trial began Nov. 9 in federal court but it does not yet appear that a decision is close. As the San Jose Mercury News reported, there are two very different stories being told.

“Federal prosecutors will depict Chow as a violent gang leader with a long history of overseeing Chinatown's crime scene. Chow's lawyers will try to sell him as a reformed criminal who turned straight only to be framed by federal agents trying to justify one of the longest and most expensive undercover probes in recent Bay Area history.”

This report contains material from Reuters and the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Role of undercover FBI agent under scrutiny in 'Shrimp Boy' Chow trial
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1118/Role-of-undercover-FBI-agent-under-scrutiny-in-Shrimp-Boy-Chow-trial
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe