FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2010
CONTACT:
ADA Brian Buckelew, DA Harris’ Office (415) 553-1383
Erica Derryck, DA Harris’ Office (415) 553-1167
DA HARRIS CHARGES SF MAN FOR DEFRAUDING SCORES OF LOW-INCOME HOUSING PROGRAM APPLICANTS
Man Preyed on Asian-American Community in Widespread Housing Application Scam
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – District Attorney Kamala D. Harris announced today that Kan Yin Chow, 51, of San Francisco, was charged with 41 felony counts relating to a widespread housing-application scam that victimized 19 Asian-American residents of San Francisco.
“Chow’s affinity crimes preyed on his own community and fundamentally undermined the purpose of the low-income housing program,” said District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. “Chow’s arrest resulted from a collaborative effort among the DA’s office, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the greater community.”
Chow is charged with 28 counts of grand theft (Penal Code section 487(a)), 5 counts of acquiring and retaining access card information of another for an unlawful purpose (Penal Code section 484e(d)), 5 counts of using an access card to commit fraud (Penal Code section 484g), 1 count of second-degree burglary (Penal Code section 459), and 2 counts of obtaining the personal information of another with the intent to defraud (Penal Code section 530.5(a)).
Chow was a sales agent hired by Homebricks, a subsidiary of the BRIDGE Housing Corp. (a low-income housing developer contracted by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency) to assist mostly Chinese-speaking applicants with the paperwork and processes involved in obtaining a below-market-rate dwelling. Involved units include those of Mission Walk, located in the Mission district, and those of Armstrong Townhomes, located in the Bayview district. Hired to be a facilitator and paid by the developer for assisting the applicants, Chow instead became an exploiter of people who lacked the language skills and familiarity with the system to know that they did not have to pay Chow to get a place to live. From October 1, 2008 through October 31, 2009, Chow deceived Asian-American applicants to a low-income housing program into paying him thousands of dollars under the false pretense that these payments were a necessary prerequisite for them to obtain a home. What began as a claim by a single applicant that Chow had solicited a “loan” of $5,000 from her with the comment that if she did not give him the money, she might not get a home, has since grown into an investigation in which the SFDA and the USPIS have interviewed nineteen additional individuals and couples who have reported solicitations by Chow for money linked to their applications for low-income housing. While the original complaining party said that she refused to pay Chow, all of the others claim to have paid him between $1,000 and $4,000. According to the applicants, Chow convinced them that he had the power to determine who got a home and who did not, and that those who wanted a home had to give him money. In some cases, the alleged victims said that they thought Chow was an influential public official who chose applicants out of a larger pool and could procure for them one of the limited places in a new and highly sought after development. In other cases, Chow claimed he needed the money to pay off other people, expedite paperwork or move applications through City Hall.
In addition to this scheme, we have joined with the USPIS to charge Chow with identity theft for charging approximately $70,000 to credit accounts in the name of his ex-wife and daughter without their permission.
Chow was arraigned this morning in Department 11 of the San Francisco Superior Court. He entered pleas of not guilty. Bail on the DA warrant had previously been set at $615,000 and today the court kept bail at that amount. The next court date is February 8, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. in Department 11 to set a date for preliminary hearing.
The arrest of Kan Yin Chow is the result of an investigation by San Francisco District Attorney Investigator Matt Irvine. United States Postal Inspection Service Inspector Byron Dare and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency also participated in the investigation. Ana Gonzalez is the Assistant District Attorney prosecuting the case.
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