Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that XING LIN was convicted yesterday in Manhattan federal court of murdering two individuals in a Queens nightclub in 2004, engaging in racketeering from 1996 through 2010, and extortion. The jury found that LIN, the leader of the criminal enterprise, operated three illegal gambling parlors in Chinatown, extorted bus company owners and murdered two individuals. LIN was convicted after a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Xing Lin now stands convicted for his role at the helm of a ruthless and deadly gang that went on a 13-year crime spree of extortion, racketeering, and violence, including a revenge killing and the murder of an innocent bystander. His life of crime is finally over and much of the rest of it will almost certainly be spent in a prison cell."
According to the Superseding Indictment, other documents filed in Manhattan federal court, and the evidence presented at trial:
From 1996 until December 2009, LIN was the leader and “Dai Lo" - a Fuzhou term that translates as “Big Brother," but commonly refers to the boss of a criminal gang - of a gang that operated in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan and elsewhere. The members of LIN's gang were known as “followers." LIN and his followers engaged in a number of criminal ventures, including the operation of high-stakes illegal gambling parlors in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan; the extortion of business owners; and the beating, stabbing, and murder of rivals.
Beginning in 2002, LIN extorted the owners of a bus company that ran buses between Manhattan and Charlotte, North Carolina. In May 2004, Chang Qin Zhou, one of the bus company shareholders who was being extorted by LIN, refused to pay LIN additional money that LIN had demanded. During the early morning hours of July 30, 2004, Zhou was with a group of men and women in a private room in a karaoke bar in Flushing, Queens when LIN and one of his followers forced their way into the private room, and LIN ordered his follower to “shoot" Zhou. The follower shot Zhou six times, killing him. One of the bullets also struck and killed Mei Ying Li, a waitress who was working at the karaoke bar and was in the private room at the time of the shooting. A second waitress was shot in the leg and survived.
Following the shooting in the karaoke bar, LIN relocated his criminal gang to Toronto Canada, where he continued to run gambling parlors and use violence against his rivals.
LIN was arrested in Toronto, Canada, on April 14, 2011. Following extradition, LIN arrived in the United States on Aug. 19, 2011.
LIN, 42, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense; one count of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense; one count of murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense; and extortion, which carries a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. He was acquitted on one count of extortion conspiracy. LIN is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Cedarbaum on Sept. 10, 2013, at 11:00 a.m.
Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of the New York Field Office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the New York City Police Department.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Peter Skinner and Jennifer E. Burns are in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
