4 Arrested in Lake Forest After Alleged Extortion Attempt

Four men who allegedly kidnapped a Covina businessman and threatened to kill him and his family in an effort to extort $220,000 were arrested Friday night in Lake Forest.

The suspects were booked on suspicion of kidnapping and extortion, and each was being held in a Los Angeles County jail Saturday. They will be arraigned Tuesday in West Covina, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesperson said.

The four suspects were identified as Chin-Fu Chou, Yu Ming Shih, Kvau Hsivng Chu, all 42; and 40-year-old Han Ching Tsai.

The four allegedly contacted 49-year-old Heiman Yen--who owns a computer products company--on Monday evening.

They demanded that he meet them at a hotel near the Los Angeles International Airport to discuss $220,000 they said Yen owed them, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.

The suspects told Yen to pay the money immediately or that he and his family members would be killed, police said.

Yen convinced the men he could get some of the money from an El Centro businessman, and on Wednesday the four drove him to El Centro and were given a check for a portion of the debt, police said.

The suspects warned Yen that if the rest of the debt wasn’t paid by Friday, he and his family would be killed, police said.

Yen reported the alleged threat to sheriff’s detectives in the City of Industry station Friday afternoon.

Detectives from the Asian Crime Task Force, FBI agents and investigators from the Los Angeles district attorney’s office conducted a stakeout in the 23700 block of Rockfield Boulevard in Lake Forest and arrested the four Friday night.

Authorities also searched a hotel and restaurant in Lake Forest and a home in Mission Viejo, seizing a variety of documents, according to the department statement.