Is Winston Lum a criminal mastermind or a patsy?

A A A Comments By Matt Smith Wednesday, Aug 4 2010

...continued from page 4

In January 2009, Lum's comfortable new life got complicated when he began receiving property tax bills on the condos. He talked to his friend Kevin Nakagawa, a deputy sheriff.

"I said, could he explain what this was? He said, 'Dude. You own property,'" Lum recalls. "He asked me if Shirley Hwang was related to my ex-wife. ... I said, 'I'll give you the documents. Could you find out what's going on for me?'"

Eartha Goodwin

Lum looking pensive during a jailhouse interview.

San Francisco Police Department

Kaushal Niroula, an alleged con man who befriended Lum.

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Could a man involved in a criminal scheme be so dense as to ask a law enforcement officer for help? I had my doubts, but then I read the San Francisco Police Department description of the investigation.

According to detectives, Nakagawa called a representative at the Rincon Hill Homeowners Office, who called Hwang. She sought the help of police, who then stumbled onto the latest chapter in the saga of Kaushal Niroula.

My hope is that prosecutors — or at least a jury — will see that Lum was, to a degree at least, the latest in Niroula's growing list of victims.

Gilbert Wong, a student at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont who took tennis lessons from Lum, described an epiphany that comes with meeting Lum. "I've hung around with Winston," Wong says, "and he does not seem that smart."

Lum is scheduled to appear at a pretrial hearing in San Francisco Superior Court on Aug. 9. He remains in custody; his bail was set at $7.5 million.

Check out this week's featured ad for News