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Gaining Momentum
Join Date: Mar 26, 2018
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 90
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Gree Tea/Meridian WOW!!
Federal investigators seized $35,093 and other evidence of prostitution in an April raid of a Northeast Side massage parlor. Less than four months later, the operator has pleaded guilty.
Derek Wai Hung Tam Sing, 52, admitted in San Antonio's federal court that he traveled here from California every month to check on the establishment, Meridian Spa on Austin Highway, and to collect proceeds from the women who worked for him.
Some of the women worked at the San Antonio massage parlor and brothels he allegedly ran in California, court records said.
Sing, an electrical engineer with three master's degrees, parted ways with his first appointed lawyer earlier this year. He said in court late Friday that he thought long and hard on whether to go forward with the plea agreement he'd signed with federal prosecutors.
Would you want to plead guilty or not guilty? U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad asked him at least twice, going over several details of the plea agreement.
With a fully shaved head and wearing a blue jail jumpsuit, the soft-spoken Sing said he wanted to represent himself. At one point, he turned to discuss the matter with an assistant federal public defender that Bemporad appointed as "stand-by" counsel.
“I just want to move forward,” Sing eventually told Bemporad.
After the judge told him he was also giving up his right to appeal, Sing pleaded guilty to interstate travel in furtherance of racketeering activity (promoting prostitution).
MORE COVERAGE: From choir boy to pimp: A California engineer to plead guilty to running sex-for-pay operation in San Antonio
Under the plea deal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bettina Richardson agreed not to charge him with money laundering or coercion.
Bemporad also went over a provision in the plea deal that allows prosecutors to keep, by forfeiture, the $35,093 seized from the business and Sing, who had ledgers of how much prostitutes who worked for him earned.
Richardson said the government's evidence also included electronic devices.
"He will not get those back," she said. "They are evidence of a crime."
Sing was more worried about personal items the feds seized. "I don’t have a problem with that, just not anything personal, like keys, class rings, clothes that have nothing to do with this," he told the judge.
Richardson said the authorities would not keep those items.
The business at 2371 Austin Highway was previously known as Green Tea Spa and Executive X, and had been under investigation by Texas state authorities since 2017. San Antonio police also assisted in the investigation, which was ultimately taken over by federal law enforcement.
Investigators learned that Sing used his cellphone and the internet to respond to customers.
"It was all done by phone and apps," said a source familiar with the investigation.
Born in Honolulu in 1971, Sing was one of four children and had a wholesome upbringing, court records said. He graduated from a Catholic high school and was a member of the Honolulu Boy Choir.
Sing moved to California to go to college, and obtained a bachelor's degree, then two master's degrees, all in electrical engineering. He also earned a master's degree in business administration.
By April 2012, Sing was working as an engineer designing helicopter components at California-based Rogerson Kratos Avionics. But he was fired after just seven months for “delays in completing assignments, late attendance and unprofessional attitude," court records said.
He had signed a nondisclosure agreement in which he pledged to turn over any documents that included business secrets once he left the company. Nevertheless, he kept the secrets and decided to retaliate after being dismissed.
“He packaged the trade secrets with sufficient supporting documentation and instructions so that other competitor companies would be able to use the trade secrets and reverse engineer RK’s products,” U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder stated in a court order. She had convicted Sing of 32 counts of corporate espionage at a bench trial in January 2016.
“Defendant admitted that, in preparing these trade secrets, he ‘wanted to get back at Rogerson Kratos’ for not fully appreciating his work while he was an employee,” the judge added.
Using a false name and a public internet connection at a Starbucks, Sing had sent stolen company secrets to other avionics companies in 2013, including one outside the U.S., authorities said. He also sent trade secrets on USB flash drives.
His plan fell apart when one of the avionics companies that received the stolen secrets reported the matter to Rogerson Kratos. His former employer called the authorities. He was later sentenced to a year behind bars, followed by three years of federal supervision.
The maximum penalty for his prostitution case is up to five years in prison, and prosecutor Richardson told the judge that she intends to pursue the full 60-month sentence.
Sing is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 18 by U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez.
Sing is also under investigation by the California Department of Justice over allegations that he also operated brothels in Fresno and Sacramento, Calif., records show.
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