LOS ANGELES : Chinese National Convicted in Businessman’s Kidnaping

A Chinese national was convicted Tuesday of kidnaping a fellow Chinese businessman from a Rosemead motel and attempting to extort $50,000 from him during a two-day ordeal in October, 1993.

Carl Zhang, 32, was found guilty on single counts of conspiracy to kidnap and extortion after a four-week trial in federal court in Los Angeles.

He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment when he is sentenced Sept. 11.

Zhang, his younger brother, John, and his former wife, Mary Wang, were accused of abducting Zhou Xing Ping, a silk dealer who decided not to sell to an American buyer that Carl Zhang and Wang found for him. A trial is pending for John Zhang, and Wang has fled the country.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Sunny Brenner told jurors that the plot was executed out of greed and revenge over the collapsed deal, which cost the defendants a finder’s fee.

Zhou, who testified for six days during Carl Zhang’s trial, ran to freedom at Los Angeles International Airport before the Zhangs could put him on a plane to Beijing.

He described a harrowing story of being handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten as the Zhangs tried to get him to turn over $50,000 in cash from a Hong Kong business.