By his own account, authorities say, Anthony Yiu Leung was a one-man crime wave, and incorrigible at that.
He's charged with counterfeiting Wal-Mart receipts and U. S. currency and possessing child pornography, and that's just in federal court. Theft charges, mainly stemming from Wal-Mart rip-offs, also are pending against him in Sacramento, Yolo, Solano and Placer counties.
During much of last year, he claimed he got away with uncounted thousands of dollars worth of goods from the nation's top retailer, lugging loot out the front doors right under the noses of employees, officials said.
Even after allegedly admitting everything to a U.S. Secret Service agent, the 27-year-old Leung kept walking into Wal-Mart stores and walking out with whatever merchandise that was reflected on a receipt bearing the date and time he was in the store, authorities said. Only the receipt was manufactured in the bedroom of his South Land Park Drive home.
He appeared in federal court on Wednesday. Prosecutor Matthew Segal sought to keep him jailed, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly J. Mueller ordered Leung held without bail, noting his lack of employment and legitimate income, history of drug abuse, and "significant prior criminal record."
A preliminary hearing is set for July 3. Leung is to be indicted before then, so the hearing will be postponed until the grand jury acts, or Segal will charge him independent of the grand jury.
On Nov. 21, Secret Service Special Agent Brian Korbs' phone rang. It was Edward Henkel, a Wal-Mart in-house investigator who said he was with West Sacramento Police Department personnel who were searching Leung's house and had run across what appeared to be some phony currency. The Secret Service enforces counterfeiting laws.
The agent hurried down to South Land Park and found a smorgasbord of evidence. He reported finding numerous $100 bills lying about, some only partially finished, and Wal-Mart receipts were strewn around Leung's bedroom, including one on a computer scanner.
They bore the universal product code, commonly called a bar code, that appears on retail receipts, along with a transaction code used by Wal-Mart.
The latter code is defined in federal law as an "access device." That gave Korbs a hook; the Secret Service also has jurisdiction when such devices are unlawfully copied.
Investigators say they also found barcoded Wal-Mart price placards in Leung's home, possible templates for fraudulent receipts. And there allegedly was all manner of Wal-Mart merchandise – from golf clubs to power tools.
Leung, under arrest and handcuffed, allegedly confessed to Korbs the scheme to steal from Wal-Mart. He estimated he had been running the scam for months and had netted thousands of dollars, officials said, dumping the stuff on at least two fences. The food he consumed.
He further admitted manufacturing money, officials say, which he used to acquire the few things Wal-Mart doesn't carry and in dealings with individuals.
West Sacramento detectives seized four desktop computers, a laptop computer and hardware.
Korbs got a warrant two weeks later to search the computers and storage media for evidence of counterfeiting. He turned up more than 100 images of completed and partial currency and 392 images of Wal-Mart receipts.
But there was a whole other dimension to Leung's alleged chicanery that only then came to light. The veteran agent came across files with sexually explicit titles and lascivious images of what appeared to be minors.
Korbs then obtained two more warrants authorizing another search of the computer equipment and Leung's residence and vehicle, this time looking for child pornography. When that search of the house was conducted – again by Secret Service agents and West Sacramento detectives, joined by a Sacramento Police Department officer – Leung reportedly admitted to Korbs that he was storing child pornography. He said the file names had been "masked" and he was unaware of the content when he downloaded the material from the Internet.
Seized then were $360 in $100 and $20 bills and 28 Wal-Mart receipts; two more laptop computers, an external hard drive, four videotapes, 29 floppy disks, two media cards and more than 300 DVDs and CDs, all possibly from Wal-Mart.
A subsequent report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children informed Korbs that 15 of the video files he submitted for analysis contain child pornography, and the children involved had been located in the United States, Peru, England, Germany, France, Sweden and Belgium, the report said.
The second search of the house was on Dec. 27. Less than a month later, Leung, out on bail from Yolo and Sacramento counties, was stopped leaving a Wal-Mart in Dixon. He reportedly had a computer and a homemade receipt.
Out on bail from Yolo, Sacramento and Solano counties, Leung was scheduled to surrender to Secret Service agents on June 3 but was instead busted in the throes of one last alleged fling: breaking into coin machines at 3 a.m.
Placer County authorities gladly turned him over to Korbs.
Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.
