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Two on trial for alleged loan sharking
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Posted on Sep 20 2004
A federal witness yesterday said that she paid nearly triple the amount of her original debt to two Chinese nationals now being tried by a jury for alleged loan sharking.
The witness, identified as Ms. Fu, said that she had borrowed $300 from defendants Yan Jin Shi and Huang Jin Yong a.k.a. Ah Rhong or Ah Yong but due to the huge interest imposed by the two, she actually paid over $800.
Fu, during direct examination by assistant U.S. attorney Jamie Bowers at the U.S. District Court, said yesterday that she had to borrow $300 to be able to gamble at the Shanghai Store, located behind 777 Casino in Garapan.
“I lost a lot of money—thousands of dollars—in gambling,” she said.
She said she decided to borrow money so she could gamble some more, in the hope of winning big and recouping her losses.
She said that a staff, a certain Xing Ping who works at Shanghai Store, referred her to the two defendants. Yan, she said, also works at the store.
“Xing Ping talked to them [defendants] and they lent me money,” she said.
When asked, however, to identify the two defendants, Fu only recognized Huang, who was represented by attorney Perry Inos. Fu said it was Yan who handed her the money.
Further, Fu told the court that Huang and Yan threatened to throw her off Suicide Cliff when she could not pay her debt.
She said the two, at one time, got her into a car and drove her to the San Antonio area. “They told me that if I don’t pay they’d throw me off Suicide Cliff. I cried and begged for my life,” she said.
Since then, she said that she had consistently paid the two every pay day until she paid them a total of over $800.
When asked, Fu said that the interest rate was computed daily at $3 for $100. She said that she later negotiated to lower the rate to $2. Fu said she works at a garment factory, earning some $800 every two weeks. She said she works an average of 10 hours a day with one day off a week.
Authorities said that lenders typically cannot charge more than 60 percent interest per annum.
