Feds: 6 plotted to beat restaurant worker to collect $40,000 debt
Suspect in beating over debt
Bing Liang "Michael" Chen, 26. (. Illinois Department of Corrections)
By Deanese Williams-Harris,
Chicago Tribune
contact the reporter AssaultCrimeChicago SuburbsAurora

Feds suggest June beating related to organized criminal enterprise in Chicago's Chinatown.
Six men have been charged with plotting to beat up a restaurant worker in the western suburbs to collect a $40,000 business debt.

Federal prosecutors said five of the six men assaulted the victim in June outside an Aurora restaurant where he worked at the time. They knocked him to the ground and punched and kicked him, prosecutors charged in an indictment returned last week.

The victim suffered "open wounds" and scrapes and was left with an apparent imprint from a shoe on the right side of his face, according to FBI affidavits.

The victim said one of the men threatened to kill him if he didn't pay, according to the FBI.

The affidavits — filed in August in connection with the beating — suggest the attack was linked to an organized criminal enterprise in Chicago's Chinatown. The enterprises, in Chinese communities in several major cities, use intimidation and violence to collect debts from gambling, loan-sharking, drug trafficking, and business and personal financial deals, the FBI said.

One of the six charged was identified as Jinhuang "Benny" Zheng, 31, an owner of a restaurant supply company in Indianapolis that was owed the $40,000. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, according to court records.

Two other men charged in the recent indictment -- Bing Liang "Michael" Chen, 26, and Daniel Zhu, 19, both of Chicago -- joined with several others to physically assault two other people last November in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood in an attempt to collect a gambling debt owed to a Chinese sports bookmaker, the FBI said.

In addition, Chen was convicted in Cook County for home invasion resulting in injury in October 2009 and was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, according to one FBI affidavit. He was paroled in July 2013, the affidavit said.

Also charged in the recent indictment were Mingrui Sun, 20, and Jack Wu, 24, both of Chicago, as well as Sheng Quan "Peter" Dong, 41, no address given.

All six were charged with one count of conspiracy to collect credit by extortion. The five alleged to have taken part in the beating were also charged with one count of extortionate collection of credit by means of violence and threats.

AT 12:23 PM NOVEMBER 24, 2014


The victim of the June beating was an employee of a restaurant with two locations in west suburban Naperville and Lombard, both now closed. The restaurant owed about $40,000 to Zheng's seafood supply business.

In May, Zheng provided Dong with a yellow plastic bag containing evidence of the debt — two bad checks and four invoices that had gone unpaid, the FBI said.

The two recruited Chen, Zhu and Sun to help collect the debt from the victim, according to the affidavits. In return, they would keep half of whatever they collected.


In June, all but Zheng met at Ming Hin Restaurant in Chinatown and agreed to beat him up, the FBI said. The five drove to the Aurora restaurant where the victim then worked, according to the affidavits.

After telling the victim to step outside, the group surrounded him and grabbed him by his shirt collar, according to the affidavits. When the victim tried to run into the restaurant, he was knocked down, beaten and kicked, the FBI said.

The five fled when the beating caught the attention of a passing motorist.

According to the FBI, some of the attack was captured by surveillance cameras. Zhu can be identified in the footage by a tattoo of a dragon on his right arm, the FBI said. The four others were allegedly picked out by the victim in a photo array.

After the beating, Chen recruited Wu for $2,000 to return to the Aurora restaurant with him to try to intimidate the victim into paying the debt, traveling there three times in June and July, according to the affidavits.

On July 9, the two threatened to break the windows of the restaurant if an employee did not give them the victim's phone number, the FBI said. That incident was also caught by surveillance cameras.

You think that the Outfit was connected to this somehow? I don't know if the Chinatown crew is active after Calabrese got locked up..

They are definitely on the decline but Calabrese was a capo in the crew, not the boss of the whole crew, so not sure why you'd think the entire thing would have folded up.

They probably had nothing to do with it. They haven't the manpower to compete with the Chinese down there anymore. They haven't had it for quite some time.

I guess when those guys got convicted, some other family/crew like Melrose or Elmwood absorbed the remaining guys.




I think that the Outfit has more men than the Chinese, honestly. Triads ain't got so much power in the states, at least that's what I've heard. Think about the entire organization, the old guys are smart, experienced, therefore they're on the top, whilst the young, strong and brutal are beneath, doing the heavy lifting / beating, killing, intimidating etc.

As long as they have to or three ''large'' strong guys, they can collect debts from the Russians. And obviously, these ch*nks aren't too professional...

No the Chinatown crew still exists, it's just barely surviving though. There is no more formal Melrose Park Crew.

I dunno about that. The Bridgeport neighborhood that the Chinatown crew historically farmed/farms from is completely depleted of Italians, primarily YOUNG Italians. There's a reason that crew is on the outs, and it certainly is not due to a lack of action. Meanwhile the Chinese population is strong & growing, so do the math.

The Outfit still holds some clout in a few select areas based on reputation alone. Chinatown is one of those areas to a certain extent, but it won't be that way ten years from now.

The Outfit still holds some clout in a few select areas based on reputation alone. Chinatown is one of those areas to a certain extent, but it won't be that way ten years from now.

i don't think this was outfit connected. Also about a month ago the fbi raided numerous locations in chinatown and no reason was given.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local...1024-story.html

But ask yourself this: is it just a coincidence that the only places they openly smoke inside at in Chicago is Richard's and The former Three Happiness karaoke??? Hmmmm....

Wtf is the Three Happiness Karaoke?

Scorsese...that bust I initially figured had to do with human trafficking, but I would think Homeland Security Investigations would be involved...which it wasn't. Strange that we got no explanation.

Three happiness is/was a restaurant on 22nd Wentworth. Next to the fire station. Enormous place.

Yes an awesome old shady Chinatown bar.

BTW I was just joking about the "connection."

The Chinese thing doesn't sound Outfit related.

Why would the Chinese or any other gangs give a shit about some old Italians from the suburbs? LCN's days of muscling other ethnic gangs is long gone.

hello,
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Based on the article looks like the Feds are bringing the charges against them.