The Model Minority: Nike Edition
April 19, 2014
Tung Ho, of Portland
ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:
Tung Ho and Kyle Yamaguchi, Asian Americans who were employed by Nike in Oregon and are suspected of running a highly lucrative sneaker theft business, used a gweilo as a bagman – and so far, he’s the only one who’s been indicted.
According to The Smoking Gun:
When investigators searched Ho’s residence [in Portland,Oregon] on March 14, they seized 1941 pairs of Nike shoes and “a large sum of United States currency.” After being read the Miranda warning, Ho “admitted that he had stolen several hundred pairs of Nike Look See shoes and sold them in two (2) different ways” He sold about $15,000 worth of samples on eBay, while the bulk of the stolen “Look See” models were peddled through [Kyle] Yamaguchi, his “middle man.”
During a four-month period ending in March 2013, Yamaguchi wrote 13 checks to Ho–totaling $104,000–according to bank records cited in the affidavit.
Ho claimed that he was unaware of the identity of the buyer to whom Yamaguchi fenced the Nike sneakers. Though Ho admitted that he was aware that the majority of the shoes “were sent to a buyer in Florida who would then sell the Nike Look See shoes to small boutiques and shops around the United States.”
In a March 20 interview with Detective John Bennett, Yamaguchi admitted brokering the sale of the sneakers stolen by Ho in return for a 20 percent commission. He also fingered [Jason] Keating, saying that the businessman usually traveled to Portland to make payments that sometimes exceeded $30,000.
