Though California Democratic state senator Leland Yee has plead guilty to one charge of racketeering, the trial of confederate Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow is still pending. And his lawyers have dropped a bombshell of a charge:
In an explosive court filing, lawyers for a former Chinatown gang leader said Tuesday that federal authorities shielded San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee from prosecution despite evidence from the FBI that he had taken bribes, funneled through two members of the city’s Human Rights Commission.
The two alleged go-betweens, Nazly Mohajer and Zula Jones, both told undercover federal agents that “Ed Lee knew he was taking money illegally,” attorneys for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow said in federal court papers.
Snip.
“The FBI alleged in discovery that Ed Lee took substantial bribes in exchange for political favors and that Human Rights Commissioners Nazly Mohajer and Zula Jones hustled in these bribes for the mayor,” defense lawyer Curtis Briggs said in a filing seeking dismissal of the charges against Chow. Briggs is a law partner of noted attorney J. Tony Serra, who has been representing Chow in court.
Lee “took over $20,000 from federal agents in his first four months in office,” Briggs said. He said the government “successfully engaged both (state Sen. Leland) Yee and Mayor Ed Lee in bribery scandals, yet only indicted Yee,” who had run unsuccessfully against Lee for mayor in 2011.
Assuming these charges are true, why would the FBI charge one corrupt California Democratic politician taking bribes, but not another?
A good question…
Tags: California, Crime, Democrats, Ed Lee, Leland Yee, Nazly Mohajer, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, Zula Jones
[…] in turn, meant that Lawrence beat me to the latest developments in the Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow case. Really, I was going to blog that. But, to […]
[…] that Zula Jones and Nazly Mohajer were fingered by Leeland Yee’s attorneys as being the go-betweens for bribing Lee. This brings up the question (yet again): Why hasn’t Lee […]