2 LI Men Charged In Murder-For-Hire Plot Against NYC Businessman: Feds

OYSTER BAY, NY — Two Long Island residents are among four men indicted this week for the 2019 execution-style slaying of a Queens businessman.

Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Tuesday that charged Qing Ming Yu, 54, of Oyster Bay; You You, 34, of Plainview; Antony Abreu, 34, of Queens; and Zhe Zhang, 34, of Arcadia, California, with murder-for-hire conspiracy and murder for hire.

The indictment alleges that the killing on Feb. 12, 2019, stemmed from a business dispute between Yu and Xin Gu, 31, of Long Island City.

Prosecutors say Gu worked for Yu's property development company in Manhattan between 2015 and 2018. But after several years, Gu became concerned about the company's financial viability and resigned from his post to form his own property development business.

Following Gu's departure, several clients and employees also cut ties with Yu's company, which closed its doors at the end of 2018. That's when prosecutors said Yu hired his nephew, You, to kill Gu in exchange for payment.

To carry out the murder-for-hire plot, You hired Zhang and Abreu for assistance, officials said.

Gu's new company hosted a celebration of the Lunar New Year at a restaurant in Flushing on the night of Feb. 11, 2019. The celebration continued into the next morning with an afterparty at a nearby karaoke bar.

Prosecutors say the men knew about Gu's party and decided to strike that night, with You acting as a lookout and Zhang as the getaway driver.

At around 2:30 a.m., Gu left the bar and waited outside for his Uber. Prosecutors say Abreu got out of a white 2003 Honda Civic and shot Gu multiple times. Zhang, who was driving the Honda, picked up Abreu and fled, but not before a nearby witness snapped a photo of the vehicle's license plate.

The FBI later determined that the license plate was fraudulent and nearly identical to two other fake license plates used by Abreu in the weeks before and after the murder, officials said.

"As alleged, the defendants callously used gun violence to resolve a business dispute, reducing the value of a man's life to a dollar figure, and bringing trauma and mourning to the community," said Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "Prosecuting killers will always be a top priority for this office — whether the defendant pulls the trigger, or pays someone else to do his dirty work for him."

If convicted, each defendant faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, or the death penalty.

Yu and You were arrested Tuesday in New York and Zhang was arrested in California. Abreu is already in federal custody serving a sentence in an unrelated matter and will be transferred to the Eastern District of New York at a later date, according to officials.