Working with a staff of armed collectors, lenders and bodyguards for more than 18 months, Kuang met his potential victims by visiting high-limit tables at casinos in the Sacramento area. Other suspects are being sought.Īmong those arrested was the leader of the enterprise, Weixiong Kuang, 44, a suspected member of an organized crime syndicate called the Big Circle Boys, a violent gang out of China. The charges against the five suspects include felony assault, extortion and conspiracy. “Victims are trapped in a never-ending loop of debt and fear.”Īuthorities said there were about 40 victims. “Loan shark enterprises like this one terrorize people through spiraling financial obligations and threats of violence,” Brown said. Because of high interest rates and other charges, one gambler’s $100,000 loan mushroomed to $400,000 in five months. Some were charged 5 percent interest a week. Once the gamblers accepted loans, the amount they owed began to skyrocket. Working inside tribal casinos in the Sacramento area – including Red Hawk and Thunder Valley - over the last 18 months, the suspects often preyed on Asian gamblers. today announced the arrests of five members of a suspected loan-sharking syndicate, headed by a reputed Chinese mobster, that trapped casino gamblers in a “never-ending loop of debt and fear” by loaning them hundreds of thousands of dollars at exorbitant interest rates.
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