`Walking Crime Wave' Pleads Guilty To Fraud

A 45-year-old man described by prosecutors as the "proverbial walking crime wave" yesterday pleaded guilty to making false statements and to fraud charges relating to his operation of 16 restaurants in four states over a six-year period.

Under a plea agreement filed in Seattle federal court, Richard Wun Ping Sang, formerly of Seattle and Portland, has agreed to make restitution of as much as $5 million for the losses in Washington and Oregon.

Sang could receive up to 20 years in prison and face fines of $1 million on each of four counts when sentenced July 1. He has been held without bail since last summer.

According to the charges, Sang and two associates submitted false financial statements to obtain bank loans that they then used to buy fancy cars, an expensive home in Edmonds, and restaurants in Laguna Beach, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Portland, as well as numerous restaurants in the Seattle area.

Once Sang controlled the restaurants, he failed to pay vendors or to pay state and federal taxes. He also skimmed cash from the operations, according to the charges.

Eventually the credit balloon would burst, and Sang would walk away, leaving the restaurants in ruins, prosecutors charged.

Using various false financial statements, including one showing his net worth as more than $7 million, Sang also purchased a Rolls Royce, a Mercedes 560 SEC and a Ferrari, prosecutors charged.

As part of the scheme to obtain loans and financing, Sang posed as an experienced restaurateur, a Notre Dame graduate with a master's degree in business administration from UCLA, a former student at the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and a former catering manager for Playboy Clubs in New York, London and San Francisco.

According to the charges, among the Seattle-area restaurants he controlled at one time were: Jonathan's Restaurant in Kent, The Landing in Seattle, The Alderwood Terrace Restaurant in Lynnwood, Crazy Lobster in Edmonds, Bellevue Commons Seafood Bar and Grill in Bellevue, Marlin's Restaurant in Bellevue, Meeker's Landing in Kent, Castaways in Renton and Finn McCool's (formerly Old Hoolihans) in Bellevue.

In some cases, restaurants with new names have reopened in the same locations. The only restaurant still operating under the same name it had when Sang controlled it is the Blue Max in Seattle.

Sang, also known as William Chinn and Richard Wun, was indicted by a Seattle federal grand jury in August along with co-defendants Roger J. Stallings, 41, formerly of Kent, and Johnny C. McGill Jr., of Pendleton.

McGill was a law-enforcement officer with the state of Oregon Liquor Control Board between 1984 and 1986.

Federal charges remain against Stallings and McGill, but both are cooperating with authorities, court records show.

The charges resulted from a three-year investigation conducted by the FBI in Seattle and the Secret Service in Phoenix.