Leland Yee sentenced to five years in prison

February 25, 2016
Leland Yee

Leland Yee

Former Democratic State Sen. Leland Yee received a five-year prison sentence for vote selling. Yee was arrested in 2014 after an FBI sting caught him promising votes and guns to an undercover agent who was funneling him contributions. [LA Times]

Yee pleaded guilty last year to doing political favors in exchange for campaign cash. U.S. District Judge Charles Bryer sentenced him on Wednesday.

During his sentencing hearing, Yee told the judge to be lenient and consider that he devoted much of his life to the community, the people of San Francisco and the sate of California. Yee also said his wife was severely ill and needed him to care for her.

Breyer responded by saying he was not inclined to be lenient and that Yee had been hypocritical.

“It must be that the public has trust in the integrity of the institution, and Mr. Yee, you abused that trust,” Breyer said. “You showed you did not have integrity in your actions.”

Prosecutors alleged Yee had received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for favors that he admitted were illegal. The prosecution sought an eight-year sentence.

The sting that targeted Yee was part of an FBI investigation that spanned several years and led to the conviction of Chinatown mobster Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. A jury found Chow guilty of more than 150 counts, including murder and operating a racketeering enterprise.

A judge will sentence Chow next month. He faces life in prison.

In 2014, Yee was one of three legislators to face prosecution. The criminal cases cost the Democrats their super-majority in the Legislature and led to some campaign finance reforms.

Federal agents arrested Yee while he was running for California secretary of state. Despite his arrest, Yee still received about 10 percent of the vote in the secretary of state primary election.

In addition to serving time, Yee must also pay a $20,000 fine. He has 30 days to report to prison.


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Nice smile, so now he gets an easy vacation for treason?


This hypocritical POS conspired to send advanced weaponry to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, and he’s only getting five years? I’m no Republican, but the California Democrat Party is a cesspool of corruption, malfeasance and hypocrisy. Whatever happened to the case of that guy up in San Francisco, a big advisor to several prominent Democrats, who turned out to be into some really violent, disgusting child porn? That got swept under the rug real quick. I can’t stand Trump but I’ll take him over the rotten, stinking Democrats in a heartbeat. This nation is dying, and it breaks my heart.


Former Citizen of the Year?


What do you call a politician in jail?

A good start…


Keep digging FBI. The corruption in Sacramento and San Francisco might be even worse than in Washington DC.


Simply amazing,this hack gets 5 years,if any of us taxpayers got caught at what he did they would throw away the key and we would get to rot in some stink hole, they’ll send this one to Lompoc’s country club.


The democrat party is a party of rackettering criminals.


Who should be more embarassed?


The Dems for having such a douchy player on their team?


Or the Repubs, who demonstrate their lack of mustard, since the only way they could break the Dem supermajority was to wait for the felons to get caught.


dims are never embarrassed — they have no shame.


Or la poblacion de California, who continue to elect these Nimrods?