SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Chinatown crime boss Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for his role in the 2006 fatal shooting of a prominent Chinese businessman.
"I'll not apologize to the victims," Chow said Thursday in Federal Court. "I feel sorry for them because they did not get the right guy."
He added, "I feel I'm the victim in this matter."
In January, a jury convicted Chow of 162 criminal counts, including money laundering, conspiring to buy and sell stolen goods and conspiring to kill a rival named Jim Tat Kong, who was found shot dead in 2013. He was also found guilty of ordering the hit on Allen Leung, who was killed in his Chinatown import-export shop on Feb. 27, 2006.
Leung was at the time dragonhead of the Ghee Kung Tong, a Chinatown fraternal organization that Chow wanted to take over, and did after Leung's death.
The Leung count alone carried a mandatory minimum life sentence.
"The murder in this case that requires the life sentence was particularly callous because it was the removal of an obstacle to your ascension to power," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said.
Chow insisted on his innocence, saying the court was biased in allowing Leung's daughter to testify.
Breyer also sentenced Chow to ten years for the Kong murder conspiracy and ordered him to pay Leung's family nearly $16,000 in restitution for funeral expenses.
Addressing Breyer, Chow railed against the government and hurled blame at his former defense team, particularly Curtis Briggs, who was dropped from the case in June.
"I'm not asking for mercy and sympathy from the court for what I did not do," Chow said, insisting that his lawyers had stipulated to wiretap evidence against his wishes. The wiretaps showed him accepting money from an undercover FBI agent posing as an East Coast Mafioso named David Jordan, who laundered money and sold illicit alcohol and cigarettes using connections developed through Chow.
Referring to the government, Chow said, "They totally manipulated the whole conversation and are totally lying about the whole conversation. When I told the agent 'no' they translated it 'yes.'"
Chow said his lawyers: Briggs, J. Tony Serra and Tyler Smith initially refused to stipulate to the wiretaps, but eventually did so over his objections. Because of this, Chow said, the defense was unable to impeach the agent's credibility.
Chow said the government had used him by committing crimes and then blaming him, when all the while Chow had no idea what was going on.
"This agent is doing the crime behind my back and after he conducted the crime he told me, 'oh yeah we've got a good business,' and I don't even know what they are doing," he said. Chow insisted that if he wanted to make money, he could have done so himself.
"If I'm such a criminal, don't you think I know how to make my own money? I was a loan shark since I was 13 years old. I know how to make money, but I choose not to."
Turning sharply and waving his glasses at Assistant U.S. Attorney William Frentzen, Chow said, "You know it's a lie and you accept those lies because you're selectively prosecuting me."