Daekun Cho, Extortion, California 2023

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Daekun Cho, Extortion, Los Angeles, CA, 2023

A Woodland Hills man has been arrested on federal charges for extorting ‘protection’ money from Koreatown businesses, in some cases using violence against those who refused to pay.

Daekun Cho, 38, was taken into custody by special agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, pursuant to a federal criminal complaint filed last week.

The complaint charges Cho with interference with commerce by threats or violence, a charge that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The federal investigation into Cho’s extortion scheme began about a year ago, and found that he was demanding protection money from karaoke businesses in Koreatown, as well as from ‘doumi’ or hostesses employed by patrons of the karaoke establishments.

‘To further his extortion scheme, Cho committed shootings, a carjacking, a kidnapping, and other acts of physical violence,’ according to the complaint affidavit.

The affidavit outlines physical attacks on four victims over the past year, and discusses another victim who was threatened. In one incident, a doumi driver was beaten with a baseball bat after refusing to pay the protection money, suffering a broken arm and multiple lacerations. In another, a doumi suffered a gunshot wound to the neck after Cho allegedly threatened a group of doumis and karaoke bar owners.

Cho is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Assistant United States Attorney Jena MacCabe of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting the case, with HSI and the LAPD continuing to investigate the matter.