O Brien & Associates Private Investig ation Lic No. PI 20790 EXAMPLE OF MEDIA RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS ON POSSIBLE CULPABLE THIRD PARTY IN A CHINESE/VIETNAMESE GANG CASE. September 22, 2000 Re: JOHN THAT TRUONG Newspaper Articles CONTENTS: Overview of articles, O Brien (2pgs.) Summary of Examiner/Chronicle articles on Truong et al., O Brien (4pgs.) Year by year internet indices (1995-2000) of Examiner/Chronicle articles mentioning John That Truong or Mentron Electronics (12pgs.) Examiner/Chronicle articles, 1995-2000; grouped chronologically (63pgs.) LA Times lists of articles mentioning Truong (2), and Mentron (25), 1990 to present (17pgs.) LA Times articles, 5/18/95 and 4/12/96 (5 pgs.) 806 22 nd St. " San Francisco " California " 94107 " 415-647- 9999
September 20, 2000 Daniel Barenboim, Esq. 100 Chiricahua St., Ste. 111 San Francisco, CA 94111 People v. MARCH FONG CHU Re: John Phat Truong Dear Daniel, The San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle s on-line records go back to 1995. I searched each year for both john that truong and mentron, the Orange County computer firm that was robbed in May of 1995 for $10-12,000,000 worth of computer chips and microprocessors. Find enclosed the relevant articles. From 1995 to 2000, there are 20 articles that mention John That Truong, and nine that mention Mentron, with some overlap. I also searched the L.A. Times on-line archives, from 1990 to the present. There are two articles that mention John That Truong, and over 25 that mention Mentron. LA Times articles cost $2 a piece. Let me know if you re interested in them. OVERVIEW: On May 16, 1995 as many as 13 men entered the offices of Mentron Electronics in Orange County, held three employees at gunpoint and made off with $10-12 million worth of microprocessors and memory chips. It was the largest computer heist in U.S. history. This incident was one of several in a spate of computer company robberies from San Diego to L.A. to Santa Clara to Portland, along the I-5 Corridor. After an intensive and lengthy state and federal investigation code-named Operation Bytes Dust, which included a year of court ordered wire taps, more than 20 people were indicted for various crimes connected with The Company, a vast, criminal enterprise allegedly headed by Truong that stretched from China to its hub in Northern California, up and down the West Coast and as far as New York and Texas. According to authorities, The Company engaged in racketeering, microchip Page 2 of 7
robberies, extortion, drug dealing, money laundering, immigrant smuggling, gambling and murder. Several incidents are repeatedly alluded to, including the torture murder of a Stockton jeweler and the murder of a family of five in Southern California. In 1993, 279 illegal Chinese immigrants were found crammed into two boats, one in Half Moon Bay, the other in Monterey. INS began an intensive investigation called Operation Sea Dragon. This resulted in the indictment of 23 people, including Truong. 20 of the 23 indicted, including Truong, were arrested in April of 1996. According to the articles, Truong was convicted on March 13, 1998 in federal court of illegal smuggling of immigrants from China into the United States. Five of Truong s associates: Nhat Chuong, Tam Huu Le, Ngoc Bich Nguyen, Van Thi Bach Nguyen and Hoang Le, were also convicted. Authorities alleged, through the testimony of two New York gang members, Ronnie Yang and Peter Tsang, that Truong, 25 years old when arrested, was at the head of a vast criminal organization called The Company. Many of the immigrants would allegedly be forced into indentured servitude within various criminal enterprises to pay off their passage. Truong was sentenced to 45 months by Judge Patel on September 11, 1998. Shortly after being convicted of the above, Truong and 14 others were indicted in connection with a series of microchip robberies. One of these 14 was Hoang Le, described in federal court documents at a lieutenant in The Company. The authorities (and the articles) make The Company out to be a new brand of Asian gang, not based on ethnic affiliation, but more similar to the Mafia. Truong had lieutenants who in turn dealt with crew chiefs who recruited and supervised crews to do various jobs, mostly robberies and drug smuggling. The two December 19, 1996 articles discuss Lam s association with Hoang Le. On June 22, 2000 a federal jury convicted Truong, Hoang Le, Mady Chan and Huy Chi (Jimmy) Truong (John That Truong s cousin) of being kingpins of The Company, a criminal organization that committed a series of multi-million dollar microchip robberies in Minnesota, Oregon and California. Trial dates have not been set for the other 19 defendants. Page 3 of 7
CC: George Bascom, Esq. Nelson Miles, Esq. Examiner and Chronicle Articles, 1995-present. 9/17/95 Superhighway Robbery, Silicon Valley s New Booming Industry is Chip Theft Overview and summary of various high-tech heists, primarily in Santa Clara County, mentions Mentron. 2/29/96 43 Held in Raid on High-Tech Thieves For 18 months the FBI and SJPD operated a storefront business called Prospect Distribution on Koll Circle in San Jose. Thach Ngoc Tran, 28, of San Jose, is touted as the ringleader, linked to robberies of Stratacom in SJ and OKI Semiconductor in Tulatin, OR. 4/12/96 FBI Announces crime ring bust Forty people are arrested after an 18 month investigation, ( Bytes Dust ) 17 in the Bay Area, others in Sacramento, Stockton, Los Angeles, New York and Falls Church, VA. Groups activities were ferreted out through informants. The ring was led by four bosses: Hui Chi Truong, 27, of Elk Grove; John That Truong, 24, of Folsom; Mady Chen, 30, of Elk Grove; and Bing Yi Chen of NY. FBI Special Agent is George Grotz. Bytes Dust is distinguished from Operation West Chips, an investigation conducted in February in Silicon Valley. They were local, street level criminals; Bytes Dust is national, led by a group of masterminds. Participating in the operation were: FBI, Oakland PD, U.S. DEA, U.S. Customs, U.S. Imm. and Nat. Service, California Department of Justice, SFPD, Stockton PD and Alameda PD. 4/19/96 20 Indicted in Immigrant Smuggling from June 1993 roundup at Moss Landing and Half Moon Bay At least five gangs were involved: White Tigers, Fuk Ching, and Boom Street Boys of NY, an Oakland-based gang led by Canton-born Chris Monkey Huie, and a San Francisco-based Vietnamese gang led by Truong, who was to be paid $650,000. INS District Director Thomas Shiltgen. The East Coast-West Coast network was put together during a meeting of all five gangs at Truong s then-residence in Daly City in May 1993. Truong s gang was to provide transportation from the Chinese mother ship. Others indicted: two women: Van Thi Bach Nguyen, boat owner, and Phuong Tran, 32; Hi Hoang, 25, Nhat Chuong, 28, Dau Chan Lee, 26, Tony Lu, 24, Phillip Sat Ly, 22, Khoa Viet Nguyen, 24, Brian Hui, 23, and My Lu, 30, all of Oakland; Hoang Ai Le, of Caly City, and four from San Jose. 12/19/96 A Look at One Asian Crime Ring Page 4 of 7
Describes the organization of John That Truong s criminal enterprise. Says Hoang Le was one of Truong s Bay Area middlemen, who had battled San Francisco gang leader Cuong Tran for control of criminal activities in the TL for years. A 17-year-old follower of Le has been charged with shooting Tran to death on Nov. 15. Truong was born in Saigon in 1971 to a family of Chinese immigrants who moved to VN when the Communists seized power in China. His older brother Tat came to the U.S. in 1978 with the boat people. The rest of the family came in 1985. He was arrested in 1990 on a firearms charge and fled the area before trial. He lived under an alias until 1994 when he returned to Sacramento. The following year he was arrested on the outstanding warrant and received three years probation. 12/19/96 Teen Suspect Linked to Crime Ring Calls Lam a follower of Hoang Le who once tried to kidnap Tran. Federal court records show that Le s rivalry with Tran dates back several years and involved a fight for turf dominance at CaféEm, an Asian hangout on Polk St. Officials say Le and some of his followers once kidnaped one of Tran s lieutenants from CafeEm in a bid to find Tran and abduct him. After Le went to jail, the teenager had been running with the Chinese (faction charged with killing Tran). It s one thing to switch cells within the Tenderloin, but whey you got totally outside... Tran didn t like. (Statement attributed to one expert. ) The source said he does not think Tran s killing was orchestrated by Le. Recap of John That Truong s, aka Johnny New York, criminal empire. A brother has been linked to organized crime in Philadelphia. 6/5/97 4 More Arrests in Largest Ever Computer Heist Brings to a total of 17, the number of people indicted for the Mentron robbery of May 29, 1995. The four arrested: Son Van Ly, 26 and Quang Quy Truong of Oakland; Tony Baoquoc Ly, 22, of San Leandro; and Quang Huy LE, 22, of Alameda. Tuan Thanh Nguyen is still at large. 6/18/97 Mafia-like Crime Ring... More background on crimes allegedly linked to Loung s enterprise/underlings. *torture murder of Stockton jeweler, Vuth Hong *shooting death of 16 year-old San Jose girl on her birthday *kidnaping/robbery scheme in Torrance CA, re: Pao Kuo of PKI Inc. Police compared a fingerprint from the Stockton job to the people arrested in Torrance and found it belonged to Thongsouk Lattanophom who eventually sang. 11/24/97 Asian Gangs on the Move Along I-5 Simon Shixiang Ruan is arrested in Seattle, linked to trying to set up a Seattle arm of the Jackson Street Boys. Recounts Asian criminal exploits along I-5 corridor. The article refers to the state attorney general s enormous report Gangs 2000" which estimates 15,000 Asian gang members in California. 806 22 nd St. " San Francisco " California " 94107 " 415-647- 9999 Page 5 of 7
2/4/98 High-Tech Robberies Result in Charges Kevin Hew Liu, an alleged boss of a West Coast crime syndicate, is indicted on robbery. Liu is a boss in Truong s organization. Liu is described as one of the four bosses who participated in getting the guns and financing of the robberies. 3/14/98 Three Convicted of Smuggling Immigrants See above. Says Truong is facing charges in three additional federal indictments: in SF, a heroin trafficking scheme; in SF, microchip robberies; in Sacramento, a money-laundering case. 3/16/98 Criminal Probe Finds New Type of Asian Gang Talks about Truong, Bytes Dust, wiretaps. Talks about increasing diversity, including: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Chinese, Japanese and even Caucasian criminals; and women. Contrast with Triads. 3/31/98 Indictment Alleges Racketeering Ring Refers to Truong s organization as The Company. Others indicted: Middlemen Chhayarith Reth, Hoang Ai Le, and Ngoc Bich Nguyen. Crew chiefs Minh Nhut Duong, Nghia Thanh Nguyen, Johnny Gia Tramm, Thy Chann Others Huan Xin Li, Cai Choi Ung, Sinh A. Luc, Chung Yiu Chan, Huy Chi Truong, Mady Chan, Bing Yi Chen, Hoa Duc Nguyen, Minh Trong Huynh, Van Thieng Di, Chinh Quoc Pham 4/18/98 Actor s Murder Indicted in Chip Heist Tak Sun Tan, convicted of killing the Cambodian actor from The Killing Fields was indicted along with five others (Truong associate) Chhayarith Reth, Chanda Sen, Phim Phay, Rey Chen and Sylvia Savutha) in the robbery of Alpha Systems in Fremont. 5/4/98 Microchips Easy Prey for Savvy Thieves General background on Silicon Valley robberies. 5/21/98 15 Indicted in Bay Area Microchip Robbery Ring Talks about Hoang Le as Truong s lieutenant in The Company. Background of the West Chips ring. 9/7/98 Judge May also Punish Trial Lawyer Details problems between Judge Patel and Maureen Kallins. Page 6 of 7
9/14/98 Immigrant Smuggler to be Sentenced Today Talks about sentencing recommendations from each side and the testimony of the two informants, Yang and Tsang. 9/14/98 Maximum Sentence for Human Smuggling Ringleader Truong gets 45 months. 9/15/98 Immigrant Smuggler Gets 45 Months Same as above. 9/15/98 Smuggling Ring Boss Sentenced 23 people were charged; 17 pleaded guilty; Truong and five others were convicted after a nineweek trial. 3/10/99 Bay Area Man Indicted in Texas Microchip Theft Trieu Viet Le, 42, indicted in heists similar to one s carried out by The Company headed by John That Truong. 3/1/00 Trial Begins for Men in $10 Million Microchip Robbery Case Truong, Hoang Le, Huy Chi (Jimmy) Truong, and Mady Chan stand trial for racketeering. The four are accused of being the founding fathers of The Company. 6/10/00 Chip Heist Case Goes to Jury Says the Truongs and Chan are founding fathers and Le is an operations person, who helped recruit gang members, sell drugs and commit robberies. Talks about testimony by the informants. 6/23/00 Jury Convicts Four in Robberies of Millions in Computer Chips All four are convicted of racketeering and plotting the Mentron heist, among others. Truong is additionally convicted of heroin trafficking. Sentencing is set for October. Former gang members, including founder and crew chief Kevin Liu, testified at length about the stick-ups. Jurors also hear more than 200 taped telephone conversations taken from wiretaps on gang members telephones. They are the first of 19 defendants charged with membership in The Company. Trial dates have not been set for the other 15. Page 7 of 7