Woman gets prison sentence for grand larceny as a hate crime against Bensonhurst woman

A 44-year-old woman was sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half-years in prison following an earlier guilty plea to second-degree grand larceny as a hate crime after admitting to stealing about $140,000 in cash and gold jewelry from a Bensonhurst woman during an elaborate scam, announced Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

According to Gonzalez, Xuekun Su of China, acting with other individuals who have yet to be apprehended, approached the victim, a 61-year-old Chinese immigrant, in April of last year near Bay 22nd Street and 86th Street. Su and the other individuals talked to the victim and claimed to be clairvoyants. They warned the victim that she or a member of her family would die because of a curse unless she gave them a large amount of money and jewelry to be blessed.

Su and the other perps told the victim she would receive both the money and jewelry back after they blessed them and removed the evil spirits. The victim ended up giving Su and the other perps the cash and gold jewelry. She placed it into a bag for the “blessing.” Su and others then stole the items in the bag and gave the victim a closed bag, instructing her not to open it for many days or the blessing wouldn’t work.

When the woman opened the bag later that night, with the defendants gone, she discovered that it was empty and called the police.

The defendant admitted that she had selected the victim based on her age and national origin, making her larceny conviction a hate crime under New York State law.

“After targeting vulnerable immigrant women, this defendant stole the victim’s life savings by exploiting the fears and beliefs of the culture they shared,” said Gonzalez in a statement. “Her deplorable conduct more than merits the prison sentence imposed today. I will aggressively prosecute those who seek to profit from our immigrant communities, and we will continue my office’s efforts to educate everybody about common illegal schemes like this Chinese blessing scam, as we do in our monthly Immigration Forums.”