Chinese-American state senator nabbed in FBI sting

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-04-07

Disgraced Californian state senator Leland Yee. (Photo/CNS)

The "American Dream" of Chinese-American political star Leland Yee has been shattered after the formerly well-respected California state senator was charged with eight criminal charges relating to corruption and gun trafficking.

The 65-year-old Yee, a San Francisco Democrat from southern China's Guangdong province, was suspended by the California State Senate on March 28 following his arrest two days prior as part of a massive FBI undercover operation. The 137-page criminal complaint accuses Yee of accepting bribes, money laundering, arms dealing, and having close associations with suspects in a murder-for-hire plot. He is curently free on a US$500,000 bond pending trial.

Yee had previously maintained a clean-cut image with his focus on food health and safety, education, video game classification and gun control, and became a symbol of success in China after winning multiple awards such as California Legislator of the Year. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor of San Francisco in 2011 and was running for California secretary of state until his arrest.

According to the federal affidavit, an undercover FBI agent infiltrated the Hung Moon Ghee Kong Tong, a fraternal association in San Francisco sometimes referred to as the Chinese Freemasons, in 2011. The FBI's initial intentions were to target the group's chief, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, who has ties to a San Francisco Chinatown street gang and a organized crime syndicate. As the probe continued, the FBI discovered the political donations Chow made to Yee and subsequently turned their attention to entrapping the state senator.

In 2013, an undercover agent pretending to be a cannabis industry salesman provided Yee with US$21,000 in political donations in return for setting up a meeting with a senator who had influence over California's medical marijuana laws. Yee, an anti-gun violence advocate, is also alleged to have set up an arms deal valued between US$500,000 and US$2.5 million with another undercover agent in exchange for funds to finance his secretary of state campaign. The deal would have allegedly involved an associate who had also been the source of firearms supplied to Muslim rebels in the Philippines.

At one stage during the operation, Yee told an undercover agent that he was "unhappy with life" and wanted to escape to the Philippines. "There is a part of me that wants to be like you," he allegedly said to a man he thought was a criminal.

Yee, a naturalized US citizen, was born in the Guangdong city of Taishan and moved to San Francisco when he was three years old. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's degree from San Francisco State University and a PhD in child psychology from the University of Hawaii in 1975.

Prior to becoming a state senator, Yee was a member of the California State Assembly, a supervisor of San Francisco's Sunset District, and was president of the San Francisco School Board. In 2004 he became the first Asian-American to be appointed speaker pro tempore, making him the second highest ranking Democrat of the California State Assembly.

As a fluent Cantonese speaker, Yee had told local media in Guangdong when he returned for a visit in 2006 that "Dreams can come true in America as long as you are willing to work hard."