Peter Chong

Criminal activities Chong came to the U.S. from Hong Kong in 1982, ostensibly to start a Chinese opera company, but was accused in court documents of becoming the boss of the Wo Hop To (和合圖) crime syndicate in northern California, a gang involved in loan sharking and extorting protection money from restaurants and gambling dens. Witnesses testified that Chong declared he controlled Chinatown.

Chong sent an underling, Dai Kung Luu, to Boston to establish a foothold on the East Coast in 1991. This was a first step in an effort to form an umbrella organization called Tien Ha Wui ("Whole Earth Association") that would dominate crime in Chinatowns throughout the U.S. Chong, Chow and seventeen others were indicted on forty-eight counts of racketeering in 1993. Chong had already left for Hong Kong before his indictment, following an arrest in 1992 on unrelated gambling charges; The indictment was amended in 1995, and Chong was arrested in Hong Kong in 1998. After exhausting his appeals, Chong was extradited to the U.S. in 2000.

Arrests, convictions, and appeals In 2002, Chong was found guilty of racketeering, murder-for-hire, extortion, and arson, and was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison. The prosecution was aided by the testimony of Chong's former lieutenant Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow.

The murder for hire conviction was overturned in 2005 by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals due to a lack of monetary payment to the killers, evidence of proof of involvement was taken to support additional prison time for the racketeering charge. He was thus sentenced to 11 and a half years on the remaining charges. In a separate memorandum, the 9th Circuit upheld the extortion conviction and sufficiency of evidence presented during his trial.

Chong was released from prison on July 29, 2008.