Evidence from the prosecution of Raymond Shrimp Boy Chow potentially implicates a wide array of city and state leaders, including Mayor Ed Lee, in alleged bribery schemes, pay-to-play plots, campaign fund laundering and state construction contract rigging.
According to a Tuesday filing by Chows attorneys in federal court, which includes never-before-released details and names from a yearlong investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mayor Lee, some of The Citys leadership, an Alameda County prosecutor and a state official were all named in alleged wrongdoing caught on tape or witnessed by undercover FBI agents or their sources.
The allegations are outlined in the documents, but those named have not been charged in relation to the investigation, and several have denied the allegations.
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The government has admitted the political corruption investigation which sought to ensnare many Bay Area political figures, was instigated contrary to desire of the government; what it has not admitted is that it resulted in snagging at least a dozen bottom feeding political types, said the filing by Chows legal team, which includes attorneys Tony Serra, Curtis Briggs and Greg Bentley.
The filing, which quotes and references FBI wiretaps, body wires, agents and sources, gives a new glimpse into the breadth and depth of the yearlong FBI probe into organized crime in Chinatown and alleged political corruption in San Francisco, the Bay Area and state.
The U.S. Attorneys office did not return calls for comment on the case.
The alleged misconduct started at the top, according to the filing and its FBI sources.
The FBI alleged in discovery that Ed Lee took substantial bribes in exchange for favors, notes the filing, which goes on to say that then-Human Rights Commissioner Nazly Mohajer and commission staff member Zula Jones facilitated those exchanges.
Jones was reported by the FBI to have said that former mayor Willie Brown taught Lee to do business, according to the filing.
You got to pay to play here. We got it. We know this. We are the best at this game
better than New York. We do it a little more sophisticated than New Yorkers. We do it without the mafia, Jones reportedly said.
Mohajer allegedly explained the process by which she launders Ed Lees campaign money, said the filing, which went on to say that Lee took $20,000 in campaign contributions, gifts and trips in his first four months in office. The filing alleges Jones and Mohajer said Lee knew he was taking the money illegally.
Lee attended a meeting on April 6, 2012, with Jackson, Jones, Mohajer and an undercover FBI agent (UCE-4773) posing as a businessman, according to the filing. Mohajer then introduced the agent to Lee as an individual who had raised $10,000 to assist in retiring the campaign debt.
The campaign contribution limit in local races is $500.
The San Francisco Examiner asked the mayor about that meeting, and he replied, I cant remember everybody that I meet. I met a lot of people during the 2011 campaign.
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Board of Supervisors President London Breed, specifically, is named in the filing as a politician who one can pay for access and favors.
In Breeds case, according to the filing, Derf Butler, a politically connected businessman who worked for Yee with Jackson, told an FBI source that he pays Supervisor Breed with untraceable debit cards for clothing and trips in exchange for advantages on contracts in San Francisco.
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San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency employee Sululagi Palega was also named in the FBIs investigation and allegedly sold a gun to an agent.
According to the filing, on March 21, 2013, an undercover FBI agent (UCE-4599) met with Palega in the agents car.
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The FBI investigation also reached beyond San Francisco, according to the filing. In following Yees efforts to collect campaign funds for his failed mayoral push, the FBI seems to have uncovered efforts by an Alameda Countys Assistant District Attorney to do the same.
On Nov. 30, 2012, the FBI recorded Yee getting a call from Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Sharmin Bock to discuss campaign contributions. Bock ran unsuccessfully for San Francisco District Attorney in 2011.
Just to let you know, all the checks have been vetted, Yee said in the recording. Bock then replied: Its not like strip club money or anything like that right? Im good, according to the documents.
