SAN FRANCISCO — A Cupertino man has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal custody for laundering more than $1.5 million for an undercover officer pretending to be a New York mob figure who was seeking help from an organization led by an infamous Bay Area gangster.
Serge Gee, 37, was sentenced Aug. 15 by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. In April, Gee pleaded guilty to laundering money with the San Francisco-based Ghee Kung Tong criminal organization led by Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
Prosecutors argued for a 34-month sentence, writing in a sentencing memo that Gee was brought into a money laundering conspiracy by his mother, Elaine Liang, who ran a “drug distribution network” that stretched to New York, Georgia and Massachusetts. They acknowledged, though, that Gee “willingly returned from abroad” to face the criminal charges.
The undercover FBI agent gave Gee and others the impression that the money he was laundering came from “illegal gambling, bookmaking, sports betting, drugs, and marijuana grows,” prosecutors said.
Gee’s attorney cited his rough upbringing and relatively minimal involvement in criminal activity, compared to his co-defendants. Others in the case were implicated in crimes like murder, drug sales and bribing public officials, including disgraced former state Sen. Leland Yee, ex-Oakland police Lt. Harry Hu, who at the time was an Alameda County District Attorney inspector, and other Bay Area police officers.
Chow, one of the FBI’s main targets, was convicted of racketeering, murder, money laundering and conspiracy in 2016, and is serving out a life prison sentence.
Breyer’s order allows Gee to remain out of jail until Nov. 13, when he’s required to report to the Bureau of Prisons to begin his sentence.
Source: www.mercurynews.com