A person who violently extorted Koreatown’s karaoke bar homeowners for cash and managed the neighborhood’s for-hire ladies who entertain company was sentenced to over 22 years in jail, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned Friday.
Daekun Cho, 39, from Woodland Hills, was discovered responsible of extortion and carjacking in late March. Through the five-day trial, prosecutors detailed how he charged Koreatown’s karaoke bar homeowners safety charges, and had managed doumi — for-hire occasion ladies pushed across the neighborhood’s bars — and their drivers with the specter of pressure since 2018.
“For years, this defendant terrorized retailers in Koreatown along with his violent, shake-down schemes and intimidated victims into remaining silent,” U.S. Lawyer for the Central District of California Martin Estrada mentioned in an announcement. “Extortionists who search to revenue via violence are on discover that we are going to use federal instruments to carry them accountable and the implications shall be extreme.”
Prosecutors linked Cho to the Grape Road Crips, a predominantly Black gang based mostly in Watts’ Jordan Downs housing undertaking, via tattoos and his Instagram account. Textual content messages from Cho proven throughout trial mentioned that if enterprise homeowners didn’t pay him, they might “see the true demon” or “face the implications,” or he would “kick u out of ktown,” the discharge mentioned.
In Might 2021, a doumi driver refused to pay Cho extra money and was attacked by Cho and one other man who beat him with metallic baseball bats till he was unconscious, then stole his minivan.
In July 2022, he shot at a automobile with doumi inside after a driver broke one in every of his guidelines, breaking glass that struck a lady within the neck. When one other driver stopped paying in January 2023, Cho stole $1,000 from him and threatened to kill him.
When Cho was first arrested, authorities seized two weapons, {a partially} constructed ghost gun, loaded magazines, an unlawful knife, two baseball bats and over $20,000 in money, authorities mentioned.
Through the trial, Cho’s protection lawyer mentioned he was making an attempt to “deliver a modicum of order to the jungle,” claiming Cho was making an attempt to assist shield companies from new start-ups which may minimize into the market.
