Extortion

A gang member was convicted Wednesday of extorting money from an Orange County restaurateur, threatening to harm her children if she did not pay. Johnny Zin Chan, 30, of Alhambra faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced March 15 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He was found guilty of extortion charges stemming from repeated threats and acts of vandalism at the victim's restaurant and home in 1989. Federal prosecutor John J. Byrne Jr.

A board member of one of the state's largest water districts pleaded guilty Monday to extortion and money-laundering charges, and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in a wide-ranging corruption probe. West Basin Municipal Water District Director Tyrone Smith is the 11th defendant to plead guilty since the FBI began investigating corruption in Carson three years ago. The Carson-based West Basin district serves nearly 1 million residents in southwest Los Angeles County and other areas.

Federal agents have arrested a 37-year-old man after he threatened to tamper with products at a Sacramento supermarket unless he was paid $2,000. David Paul Peak was accused of trying to extort money from the market on behalf of a group calling itself the People's Provisional Court and Freedom Five. Officials said the group demanded the money as a "fine" against the market for being guilty of capitalist greed. No tampered products were identified or reported.

A Los Angeles police department motorcycle officer has admitted to participating in an extortion plot with five others to steal $1 million from a Lakewood real estate broker, a prosecutor told a Los Angeles County judge Wednesday. Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman told of the alleged confession of Melvin Leon Boyd, 38, during a preliminary hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Suzanne Person.

Los Angeles police detectives have arrested a former Los Angeles city fire commissioner on charges of trying to extort $80,000 from a London insurance company in exchange for two contemporary paintings that had been stolen from a New York art gallery, authorities said Saturday. Leon Kirakosian, 46, allegedly arranged to sell two works by artists Cy Twombly and Jean-Michel Basquiat to Lloyd's of London.

Rep. Nicholas Mavroules (D-Mass.) pleaded innocent Friday after a grand jury indicted him on extortion and other charges, some dating to his tenure as mayor of suburban Peabody in the 1970s. Mavroules, a Democrat, is charged with racketeering, extortion, illegally accepting a gratuity, filing false tax returns and making false statements. He called the charges "absolutely a bunch of lies" and pledged to fight for reelection to an eighth term. The primary is Sept. 15.

A month before he died in a Sunday fire now believed to have been arson, journalist Tap Van Pham had complained to friends about Vietnamese extortionists. Pham, who died in his home and office in Garden Grove, said extortionists had stolen $360 from his mailbox and then demanded $60 to return the money, according to Pham's longtime friend and fellow journalist, Kieu Loan Nguyen.

Six reputed gangsters have pleaded guilty to attempting to extort $25,000 in winnings from two patrons of a Bell Gardens gambling casino, prosecutors said Tuesday. Trang Man Looc, 31, Doan Dinh Vu, 35, Sinh Nam Tran, 32, Ho Van Nguyen, 32, and Tien Hung Luong, 40, entered pleas last Thursday in Superior Court to one count of attempted extortion. The sixth defendant, Phu Xuan Cao, 37, pleaded guilty to the same charge in January.

A Harvard University student on summer break was arrested Thursday in West Hollywood on extortion charges after he allegedly blackmailed a physician who had tested positive for the AIDS virus, authorities said. John Michael Fountain, 21, wrote the doctor demanding $10,000 in exchange for remaining silent about the physician's positive HIV test, deputies said. The physician contacted authorities, who arranged a drop with an envelope containing $10,000 in cash.

A 25-year-old suspected gang member has been extradited to Anaheim to face charges of extortion and criminal street gang activity, police said Friday. Martin Gomez was arrested last week in El Paso, Texas, by Anaheim's gang detail. Gomez and eight other members of a local gang assaulted one of their relatives and extorted more than $400 from them on two occasions, said Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez.