Raymond ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow accused of orchestrating Mendocino Coast slaying

A federal grand jury Friday charged onetime San Francisco gang leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow with orchestrating the murder of a man found shot to death in 2013 near the Mendocino Coast.

Chow, who took over a Chinatown fraternal organization in 2006 after his 2003 release from prison for racketeering, pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco to conspiring to murder Jim Tat Kong, 51, of San Pablo. He also pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of conspiring to kill another rival in 2006. Chow’s lawyers, led by J. Tony Serra, have characterized the federal investigation as a failed attempt to lure the notorious onetime Chinatown gangster back to criminal activity using undercover agents.

Kong was found with Cindy Bao Feng Chen, 38, of San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2013, in a minivan parked on a dirt pullout leading to an old bark dump off Highway 20 outside Fort Bragg.

Kong and Chen had been shot in the heads at point-blank range in what appeared to be a calculated execution, with the gunman leaving behind the bodies and packages of marijuana, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Capt. Greg Patten said. No shooter has been arrested.

The federal case does not identify a suspected triggerman. It instead focuses on the activities of Chow, who served nearly two decades in prison for racketeering charges involving prostitution and firearms. His defense team says Chow has reformed.

But Chow is scheduled to stand trial starting Nov. 2 following a multiyear FBI investigation that alleges he used the Ghee Kung Tong fraternal association in San Francisco as a base for a broad range of illegal activities, including gun trafficking and drug sales.

Chow was the “dragonhead” of the Ghee Kung Tong and a member of the Hop Sing Tong, both based in Chinatown, when he was arrested in 2014, his lawyer Curtis Briggs said.

Kong at one point belonged to the Hop Sing Tong board but apparently was ousted.

Briggs said the FBI investigation has only uncovered illegal activities committed by other people who were coerced into the crimes by undercover agents and informants, and he said they have no real evidence against Chow.

Briggs said he welcomed the addition of murder conspiracy charges introduced over the past week because it will allow him to show a jury the vast weaknesses in the government’s case.

“There’s absolutely no evidence connecting Raymond to either murder,” Briggs said.

A spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to answer specific questions about the case and said the public documents filed with the court outline the government’s evidence against Chow.

Van Patten said the sheriff’s investigations team is still deep in its two-year pursuit to identify and arrest those responsible for killing Kong and Chen. Detectives have followed leads to the greater Bay Area and Southern California.

While his team has cooperated with the federal investigation, the local homicide case is a separate matter, Van Patten said.

Chow, whose legal name is Kwok Cheung Chow, is not being charged in connection with Chen’s death.

His 2014 arrest was one of roughly two dozen made in a complicated corruption and racketeering case that also involved San Francisco State Sen. Leland Yee, an associate of Chow’s.

Yee, a star in the Democratic party who was a candidate for California secretary of state when he was arrested, pleaded guilty in July to taking bribes from undercover FBI agents in exchange for planned votes in the state Senate and pledges to smuggle firearms.

Chow’s lawyers contend he cleaned up his act after his 2003 release from prison. The city of San Francisco honored him in 2006, and subsequent media profiles spotlighted his volunteer work and charitable acts.

Kong and Chen died violently and suddenly, according to Van Patten.

A group of off-road bikers first saw the van with Chen’s and Kong’s bodies inside and initially thought the two were asleep, he said. The bikers set out for a ride on the dirt trails beyond the gate. When they returned, they took a closer look and saw blood on one of the victims’ faces and called 911, Van Patten said.

Van Patten provided few additional details, but he said detectives immediately had some “workable leads,” and that included evidence recovered from the scene.

The pair did not have clear connections to Mendocino County, but the pot pointed to a potential reason for their visit, he said. The captain would not disclose how much marijuana was in the van with Kong and Chen, only describing it as “more than a personal-use amount.”

He said investigators were under the impression that Chen was Kong’s girlfriend.

A Mendocino County-issued death certificate for Kong filed in Contra Costa County shortly after his death, as part of a property deed matter, lists a woman named De Ming Liu as his wife.

Federal documents describe Kong as a longtime organized crime figure in San Francisco’s Chinatown and in Los Angeles. Kong was the focus of a federal investigation for allegedly dealing Ecstasy and other drugs in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, but he was never arrested.

The federal case against Chow centers around the infighting over control of the tongs, and it outlines a falling-out between Chow and Kong.

Chow claimed Kong had an affair with another “brother’s” wife and “Kong was trying to take over the Hop Sing Tong,” according to the case against Chow.

The papers describe a series of confrontations between the men, including a standoff in November 2011 when Kong is said to have showed up to the tong wearing a bulletproof vest, with other men stashing guns in nearby restaurant bathrooms and the San Francisco Police gang task force standing by.

Briggs, Chow’s lawyer, said Kong was embroiled in drugs and other criminal activities and claimed to be working alongside Chow, which led Chow to publicly denounce Kong to tong members.

In February 2012, Kong was voted off the board during an annual Hop Sing Tong meeting held in Marysville, during which police were called to stop a fight, the papers said. Kong was arrested on suspicion of making terrorist threats, but the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office declined to charge him.

Tongs have been central to the civic life and business networks of Chinese-Americans since the Gold Rush. Federal authorities allege the tongs, particularly Hop Sing, have seen some of their activities taken over by organized crime figures.

Federal prosecutors on Friday also charged Chow with conspiring to murder prominent San Francisco businessman Allen Leung, who was killed Feb. 27, 2006, at his Jackson Street import-export store in San Francisco by a masked gunman. A suspect has not been identified.

This article includes information from the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.