Did $200K in illicit Chinese pot profits go to nondescript house in CA or to a restaurant in North Quincy?
The rabbit hole of Chinese organized crime money laundering
When US Attorney Leah Foley indicted seven Chinese nationals last week in a twenty-two count multi-state conspiracy, the unsealed charging documents offered a glimpse into the vast web of Chinese organized crime money laundering fueled by highly profitable illegal marijuana grows.
Deep in the indictment US Attorney Foley details twenty-one financial transactions the federal government alleges are derived from unlawful activity, most are easily identifiable as real estate transactions or high end luxury vehicle purchases but several are less obvious.
One March 2023 payment in particular stands out as particularly brazen, a $41,500 payment from alleged ring leader (and now indicted) Jianxiong Chen of Braintree to the then indicted Licheng Haung, offering a direct connection to a prior October 2022 $25M global money laundering indictment filed by the US Attorney in Boston. Huang plead guilty and was sentenced to one year and a day (with credits he is due to be released this October, having served slightly less than a year).
The government alleges that the mastermind of the 2022 indictment was Jin Hua Zhang, 36, of Staten Island. Zhang plead guilty in 2023 but his sentencing has been postponed multiple times and is now scheduled for September 2, 2025.
Three additional flagged financial transactions totaling $200,000 to WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC demonstrate the difficulty associated with tracking Chinese organized crime money laundering.
But at least two plausible theories exist, both could be wrong. But it is also possible that both could be simultaneously true, although no direct connection between theories exists at this time.
Theory #1: An internet search located WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC in a plain looking single family home on a suburban street in San Leandro, California outside San Francisco.
The only publicly available proof of existence of WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC on file with the California Secretary of State is a single page “articles of organization” initial filing naming Dantong Tan as the “organizer” of the business on October 5, 2023. Tan also owns the home at 1208 Georgetown Ave in San Leandro where the LLC is located, he bought it from Jian Chen and Xiaojong Liang in July 2021.
The first wire payment to WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC flagged by the US Attorney was sent on October 23, 2023 just a few weeks after the LLC was created.
Theory #2: Seemingly the sole operating restaurant using the WeiShuWu Hot Pot name in the US is the Wei Shu Wu Hot Pot restaurant on Billings Road in North Quincy.
Panda Hot Pot Inc owns the Wei Shu Wu Hot Pot restaurant and the registered agent of Panda Hot Pot Inc is a man named Feng Chen of Washington Street, Canton, MA.
But the 2025 indictment indicates the $200,000 was received into a Citibank account held in the name of “WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC” not Panda Hot Pot Inc. Typically to open a bank account in the name of an LLC, a financial institution requests proof of incorporation from the state LLC was established in. Only the California Secretary of State has a record of WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC, no record of WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC exists with the Massachusetts Secretary of State.
But documents filed by the US Attorney and attorneys for Chen in the 2022 case confirm Feng Chen is the owner of the North Quincy Wei Shu Wu Hot Pot restaurant and is the same Feng Chen from Canton named as an co-conspirator in the 2022 indictment of Jin Hua Zhang, the money laundering mastermind who has yet to be sentenced.
Feng Chen is scheduled to go to trial July 28th and is represented by the downtown Boston law firm of Sheehan Phinney.
Feng Chen obviously shares a last name with Jianxiong Chen, the alleged ring leader of the seven Chinese nationals recently arrested and indicted earlier this month. But no other connection between Feng Chen and Jianxiong Chen has been established.
In 2020 Panda Hot Pot Inc LLC licensed the name to another LLC controlled in part by Feng Chen, Panda Hot Pot Chinatown LLC located at 21 Hudson Street, Boston.
On the incorporation records for Panda Hot Pot Chinatown LLC, Feng Chen’s address is listed as 42 Tosca Drive, Stoughton, home of a warehouse and kitchen remodeling business.
Documents filed by defense attorneys confirm Feng Chen also owns In House Kitchen Design and names Chen as the “main designer and installer for the business.”
In House Kitchen Design also has a retail location at Neponset Circle, a mile and a half from the Wei Shu Wu Hot Pot restaurant in North Quincy. Feng Chen of Washington Street, Canton was the resident agent of In House Kitchen Design LLC until 2023 and is still listed as a manager in the most recent report on file with the Massachusetts Secretary of State.
So did the $200K in allegedly illicit Chinese pot profits go to nondescript house outside San Francisco where the the only official record of a “WeiShuWu Hot Pot LLC” traces back to? Or to a restaurant in North Quincy owned by a man on awaiting trial in vast $25M money laundering case? We might never know.
