Shooter in Chinese Organized Crime Murders Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 400 Months in Prison

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that LUYEN DAO NGUYEN was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 400 months in prison for crimes he committed as a member of the Frank Ma Organization, a Chinese organized crime group. In October 2006, NGUYEN pled guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy for the 1994 murders of two individuals in Toronto, Canada, and for distributing kilogram-quantities of heroin. He also pled guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute heroin. In 2004, NGUYEN was charged in a Superseding Indictment with several other members of the Frank Ma Organization, including: Sui Min Ma, a/k/a “Frank Ma,” the leader of the organization, Bing Yi Chen, a lieutenant, and Paul Cai, another member. NGUYEN was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Almost two decades since Luyen Dao Nguyen murdered two innocent people in connection with a failed attempt to carry out a hit that was ordered by the leader of an organized crime ring, he will now be punished for his crimes. While the resolution of this case has been protracted, justice will now be served.”

According to the superseding indictment, the evidence at trial, and NGUYEN’s guilty plea allocution:

From 1991 through 1996, the Frank Ma Organization was engaged in the importation of millions of dollars worth of heroin from Asia into the United States for distribution in New York City. In the summer of 1994, Ma’s principal heroin supplier in Hong Kong asked Ma to kill his drug partner in Toronto, Canada. Ma agreed to arrange the murder as a favor for the supplier and to strengthen their lucrative criminal partnership. Ma then summoned several of his followers, including NGUYEN, to New York City, briefed them on their mission, provided them with a photograph of, and addresses for, the intended victim, and then dispatched the hit team to Toronto to carry out the killing.

Ma tasked his lieutenant, Bing Yi Chen, with preparing NGUYEN and the rest of the hit team. Chen, who was one of Ma’s longest-serving followers, traveled to Canada with the leader of the hit team to scout out where the intended victim lived and worked; went with the leader of the hit team to obtain guns for the murder; attempted to smuggle those guns across the Canadian border; and picked up members of the hit team from the airport, giving each of them $2000 for their trip.

On July 20, 1994, NGUYEN and another member of the hit team, Cai, shot their way into a business office where the intended victim was supposed to be, and killed Kwan Kin Ming and Yip Pak Yin, two office workers. Neither Ming nor Yin was involved in narcotics trafficking, and neither was the intended victim.

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In addition to the prison term, Judge Batts sentenced NGUYEN, 39, to five years of supervised release. NGUYEN was also ordered to pay a $200 special assessment fee.

Ma, 58, was sentenced to life in prison on February 8, 2010. Chen, 43, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on January 4, 2010. CAI, 36, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on February 22, 2010. William Nagatsuka, 38, and Ho Duc Nguyen, 45, additional members of the Frank Ma Organization charged in the same case, have pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Mr. Bharara praised the FBI’s Asian Organized Crime Task Force, comprised of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and detectives of the New York City Police Department, for their work in the investigation. Mr. Bharara also thanked the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a Toronto-based Asian Organized Crime Task Force, and the Toronto Police Service, for the vital and ongoing assistance they have provided in the investigation. These efforts, over the past 10 years, have resulted in the convictions of 13 members of the Frank Ma Organization.

This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Michael M. Rosensaft is in charge of the prosecution.