Authorities participate in a May 2 traffic stop on Jacks Valley Road just north of Genoa that resulted in the arrest of two men accused of online extortion and exploitation of the elderly.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
Three men facing charges related to efforts to bilk elderly Carson Valley residents out of tens of thousands of dollars invoked their right to a speedy preliminary hearing through a Mandarin interpreter on Wednesday.
Quan Fu Ma, Junyan Wu and Lirui Diao are scheduled to appear in East Fork Justice Court on May 29.
Wu, 22, and Diao, 21 were arrested May 2 near Genoa, while Ma, 45, was arrested May 7 in the Gardnerville Ranchos. All three men are accused of coming to Douglas County from California to retrieve money from residents.
They are among a half-dozen people facing similar charges, all of whom have required Mandarin translators, since September.
Sheriff Dan Coverley said the arrests were conducted with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the Tri-Net Narcotics Task Force.
Authorities have alleged the arrests as part of an organized and complex criminal enterprise using email and text messaging to contact their victims.
Wu and Diao were allegedly entrusted with picking up $50,000 when they were arrested, prosecutor Jim Sibley said on May 7.
Ma was released from custody on a $200,000 bond on May 9 not long after he appeared in court. Both Wu and Diao have remained in custody since their arrest.
He appeared out of custody on Wednesday with a California attorney who is fluent in Chinese, but not licensed to practice in Nevada. Attorney Matthew Stermitz represented him with the other attorney’s help. Stermitz was also appointed to represent Wu.
Attorney Mary Brown challenged the date for the preliminary hearing saying Diao has been in custody for a dozen days already. She told Justice of the Peace Laurie Trotter that she planned to file a writ in district court. A preliminary hearing determines if there is slight or marginal evidence a crime was committed and whether the accused could have committed it.
Prosecutors have questioned whether Wu and Diao should have appointed counsel, after their financial declarations indicated they had other resources. Trotter told the two men that at some point they may have to reimburse the county $2,500 for their representation.
All three men face felony charges of obtaining money by false pretenses, coercion and exploitation of the elderly.