Opinion ID: 674597
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Other Sufficiency Contentions

Text: 204 The other defendants' sufficiency challenges do not warrant extended discussion. The contentions of Minh Do and LV Hong that the evidence was insufficient to establish their participation in the E5 extortions (see Part I.B.9. above) as predicate acts for the RICO counts have no merit. There was testimony that Minh Do was one of the BTK members who received discounted beeper service as a result of the gang's in-person and telephoned threats. Especially against the background of those threats, Minh Do's March 1991 visit to the store with LV Hong and Lan Tran to have their beeper service restored after E5 cut it off, stating that the two men were his leaders and that the beepers were for them, and his order to E5 to restore service to the beepers and don't turn them off (Tr. 3889), carried sufficient threatening implications to permit the jury to find Minh Do guilty of extortion. 205 Similarly, there was sufficient evidence to conclude that LV Hong was guilty of extortion with respect to the July 1991 visit with Lan Tran to E5. Though LV Hong is not reported to have spoken during that visit, the jury could easily infer, in light of what had gone before, that LV Hong was present at E5 with Lan Tran to add an implied threat of force to Lan Tran's demands, and that he thus participated in the extortion. BTK's past treatment of E5 included (a) LV Hong's request for a free beeper, which E5 denied, (b) LV Hong's suggestion that BTK rob E5 because E5 would not give him a free beeper, (c) the carrying out of that suggestion, (d) BTK's advice to E5 that the robbery had occurred because of E5's refusal to provide free equipment and services, and (e) LV Hong's successful demand for free beeper service in March 1991. 206 LV Hong's sufficiency challenge with respect to his role in the Canal Street extortions (see Part I.A. above) as a RICO predicate act is frivolous. The record included Tinh Ngo's testimony that LV Hong was in charge of collecting those payments, as well as several tape-recorded conversations confirming that testimony. 207 LV Hong's sufficiency challenge to his Hobbs Act conviction with respect to the Sun Moon Trading robbery conspiracy (see Part I.B.13. above) is no more meritorious. Both Tinh Ngo and Eddie Tran testified that Thai told them that LV Hong would be involved in the robbery. There was testimony that on the day of the robbery, Thai, Tinh Ngo, and Eddie Tran, among others, met with LV Hong; that LV Hong spoke first with Thai and Lan Tran, and then with at least one of their Italian coconspirators; and that, after the robbery plan was abandoned, Lan Tran said he ha[d] to go somewhere to tell LV [Hong] what happened. (Tr. 1192.)