Audio Transcript

Mr. Schiff: Chinese-Americans in the United States have recently been receiving threats over the telephone. FBI Special Agent Dean Phillips is the Chief of the Asian-African Criminal Enterprise Unit in the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.

Mr. Phillips: “ It’s actually from coast to coast and north to south .”

Mr. Schiff: Phillips says these phone calls, about a thousand so far, are not recorded, but live, and apparently coming from the Far East.

Mr. Phillips: “ It seems like right now the calls are being made through Voice Over Internet Protocol, and the calls actually would be originating from China .”

Mr. Schiff: Phillips says the FBI looks at this as organized crime activity.

Mr. Phillips: “The volume of calls really requires several people to be involved. I mean, it isn’t one or two people who could be doing all these phone calls. Furthermore, when you look at the activity itself—extortion, threats of violence—those are traditional organized crime/racketeering-type activities . ”

Mr. Schiff: Calls are coming to Chinese-Americans in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other cities. I’m Neal Schiff of the Bureau, and that’s what’s happening at the “FBI, This Week .”