A Chinese national who authorities say was found with more than $1 million in cash during a traffic stop in Arkansas in 2020 was denied release by a federal magistrate judge in Little Rock on Thursday.
Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Thomas Ray said he agreed with a federal magistrate judge in California who found Hong Chou Su's ties to two Central American countries and evidence of ties to international money laundering posed too great a risk of flight.
Su, 49, a native of mainland China who was arrested in California last month on a federal money laundering charge, appeared in Ray's court Thursday accompanied by his attorney, Robert Wu of the Brooklyn borough of New York City, and an interpreter.
Su came to the attention of federal authorities when he and his co-defendant, Jay Lam, were stopped by Hazen police July 25, 2020, as Lam pulled out of a gas station there.
According to a probable cause affidavit in a related civil seizure matter, Lam, driving a rented Chevrolet Equinox, left the parking lot of T-Rick's convenience store at 4350 U.S. 63 in Hazen, crossed both lanes of traffic, then ran off the pavement onto the shoulder, traveling 50 to 75 yards before reentering the roadway.
Upon being stopped, the affidavit says, Lam appeared nervous, sweating profusely, fumbling and his hands shaking. When asked, the affidavit says, Lam told police the two had flown to Atlanta for a business meeting and were driving back to Los Angeles rather than fly out of fear of the covid-19 virus. A search of the vehicle turned up two duffel bags containing what turned out to be $1,006,030 in U.S. currency, the affidavit says.
The affidavit says that Lam told police Su had borrowed the money from a friend in China to buy a house and open a restaurant, but after Su gave conflicting amounts, ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 and then $1 million, the money was seized and the two men were released.
On March 7, both men were indicted by a federal grand jury on money laundering charges.
On April 10, both men were arrested in California and were ordered returned to the Arkansas for arraignment. At Su's arraignment on April 26, he pleaded innocent and was given a trial date of May 30 before U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker. Lam has not yet been arraigned, according to the federal court docket.
At the detention hearing Thursday, Ray heard from Su's brother, King Su, who, speaking through an interpreter, said his brother is married and has three daughters in California. King Su said his brother's wife, a native of Honduras, helps him with treatment of hepatitis B using homeopathic remedies that are unavailable to him while he's in custody.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant objected to Su's release, saying his brother had not provided any new evidence to suggest his brother would not pose a flight risk.
"Even without [cross-examining] him, I don't think he's presented any new evidence that couldn't have been presented [in California]," she said. "It certainly doesn't have any material bearing on the issue of release. I'm happy to go through cross- examination, but at this point I don't think he's met his burden."
Under questioning by Bryant, King Su said he and his brother had traveled to China 10 years ago to undergo physical exams, but he could provide little information regarding Su's current physical condition. He said his brother had worked as an Uber driver for the past two or three years. Before that, he was not able to say for sure.
"I think he worked at some sort of company before that," King Su said through an interpreter.
Asked if he knew his brother had been discovered carrying over $1 million in cash in 2020, he said he did not.
Wu argued that Su could receive more holistic treatment for his medical issues in California and that he had no history of criminal acts or flight.
"He's very involved in his kids' lives," Wu said.
Bryant argued that the magistrate judge in California had found significant reasons to detain Su, reasons she said still exist.
"The court based its findings on the fact that the defendant has ties to foreign countries, that the information provided for the pre-trial services report was inconsistent with verification, the circumstances of his arrest and he transferred significant funds on his phone upon arrest," she said. "Nothing presented today changes any of those concerns."
Ray, in ordering Su's continued detention, concurred with the California federal magistrate judge's decision.
"These are awfully hard facts, and it's hard to argue that he's not a flight risk," he said. "He has ties to two different countries in Central America and one of those countries, Honduras, is where his wife is from. His mother lives in Canada, his brother lives there, and he lives in California, which has many, many flights daily to China.
"And of course," Ray added, "he's found with a million dollars in cash traveling through Arkansas and there's nothing ... in terms of his employment as an Uber driver, that would explain that."
If convicted, Su faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.