Van man bombs out
An explosive case involving a 38-year-old man and his three caches of pipe bombs fizzled into a plea deal with federal authorities, officials said.
Alleged bomb maker Yung Tang, who lived in upstate New York, but left two vans filled with makeshift bombs in Brooklyn earlier this year, reportedly pleaded guilty to one count of possession of an explosive during the commission of a felony, as well as criminal possession of a firearm silencer and possession of unregistered explosives.
While Tang was arrested in January, vans filled with the improvised pipe bombs that he had created were found in Sunset Park on two separate dates, the last one in June.
Officials said that Tang, a Chinese citizen, was initially taken into custody in Wallingford Connecticut after he was caught sleeping in a van parked in a parking lot next to a kindergarten.
Cops ran his driver’s license and found it was suspended.
They then checked the van, which they discovered was uninsured.
Besides finding out that the license plates didn’t match, cops found two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) materials for making a pipe bomb, as well as a digital timer. They also found disguises, officials said.
Needless to say, the FBI quickly became involved. When federal agents ran Tang’s name, they discovered that he rented property in the Sunset Park, Bay Ridge area.
Investigators searched the area in early February, where they found another van parked in the driveway, which contained two more IEDs, a .22 semi-automatic pistol with a silencer and several canisters explosive and other incendiary chemicals.
The van, officials said, was parked next to Tang’s estranged wife’s home, officials said.
Then in July a third van was found – this time in Sunset Park.
Once again, several improvised explosives and bomb materials were allegedly found, officials said.
Police did not disclose just why Tang was creating and warehousing the explosives.
As part of his plea deal, Tang faces 20 years in prison. He is expected to be sentenced at the end of December.
Once his prison sentence is over, he will be sent back to China, officials said.
He must also give federal authorities detailed information on where he had placed other IEDs that the federal government hadn’t found yet.
In Bill Gates’ sights
A chain of borough computer stores are being sued by Microsoft for allegedly selling trademarked programs that they copied and sold.
According to published reports, MainPC USA was one of 20 defendants being sued by Microsoft. All of the suits were filed on October 20.
Attorneys for the computer juggernaut said that the 20 defendants all sold pirated copies of Office 2007 Enterprise, Microsoft XP Pro, Office 2003 Pro and Office 2007 Pro.
MainPC USA is a borough wide chain that has stores in Sheepshead Bay, Bensonhurst, Sunset Park, as well as other parts of the city.
Officials at Microsoft said that MainPC USA ended up under their radar after receiving complaints from consumers that they had bought computers with the copied and corrupted software already installed.
Besides New York, lawsuits were filed in California, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana and Minnesota. Lawsuits are also being filed in other countries.
A spokesman for Microsoft said that more than one third of PCs globally contain unlicensed, pirated or counterfeit software and have inflicted “significant” losses on businesses that play by the rules.
Last year, the global economic loss was estimated at nearly $50 billion, the spokesperson said.
“There is growing evidence that highly organized, transnational criminal organizations and networks are involved in the counterfeiting of software and other goods,” added John Newton of the Intellectual Property Rights Project. “This is a global problem with global sources of supply; this is why we need to work together — the public and the private sectors — to stop this trade.”
Attempts to reach MainPC were unsuccessful as this paper went to press.
It’s in the book
A convicted murderer made a motion to have his case overturned recently after finding — buried in a detective’s memo book – that the sole witness to the shooting he was arrested for was no where in sight.
Officials said that a jury convicted Derrick Hamilton of murder following a trial back in 1992.
Earlier this year, Hamilton filed a pro se motion claiming that the conviction should be vacated because the memo book entry states that the prosecution’s sole witness “was not present at the time of the murder.”
Hamilton was taken into custody back in January, 1991, for killing Nathaniel Cash inside the lobby of 215 Monroe Place.
At the time the “witness” Cash’s girlfriend, told police that she had seen Hamilton shoot her lover.
The notation in the detective’s memo book, however, is “newly discovered evidence” that warranted a new trial, Hamilton said in court papers, which requested a judicial hearing to weigh the evidence.
But this isn’t the first time he’s run the memo book conspiracy up the flagpole.
In her decision dated last month, Judge Jill Konviser denied the motion without a hearing, claiming that his allegations about the memo book had been evaluated in both state and federal court and “have been rejected.”
