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[sundubuman]

It looks like there will be a growing demand for it.

San Francisco

U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan announced Friday that a federal grand jury indicted two women Feb. 16 on immigration, money laundering and prostitution charges for allegedly operating a San Francisco brothel.

Yon Suk Pang, 56, of San Francisco and Hyon Chu Yim, 45, of San Leandro face 74 federal charges each, including eight counts of alien harboring for prostitution, another eight counts of alien harboring for commercial advantage or financial gain, and 58 charges of money laundering.

The two women allegedly operated a brothel known as Suk Hee Oriental Massage at 483 Broadway St. in San Francisco, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

The sealed indictment was opened Thursday.

Yim was arrested Wednesday at her San Leandro home, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Pang was previously charged as a co-defendant with Young Joon Yang, 37, who is thought to be the central figure in a massive prostitution ring. Yang was charged with sex trafficking, which carries a possible life sentence.

In June 2005, federal agents raided 10 alleged brothels and massage parlors, removing 100 Korean women from locations in San Francisco and Emeryville. On July 1, federal prosecutors charged 29 people in connection with those raids.

According to the grand jury indictment, "it was part of the conspiracy that Pang and Yim employed alien females to work as prostitutes at Suk Hee.''

Rockford Illinois

Trial of spa owners begins with conspiracy statements

By Mike Wiser
ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR
>> Click here for more about Mike

ROCKFORD — Of course, there were prostitutes working at the massage parlors federal and local agents shut down in February 2005.

But there was no conspiracy, defense attorneys for Kenneth Lee and Young Ja Hwang contended on the first day of their clients�� money-laundering and conspiracy trial Monday.

Prosecutors say Lee and Hwang ran prostitution businesses out of the Pine Tree Health Spa, 4315 East State St., and the Paradise Health Spa, 278 N. Phelps Ave., from at least June 2002 through February 2005.

In his opening statement Monday afternoon, assistant U.S. attorney Michael Iasparro said the evidence would show that Lee and Hwang used interstate phone lines to further their prostitution businesses and move money they obtained from the illegal acts taking place inside the health spas in violation of federal law.

��This is a case of money, greed, sex and even violence,�� Iasparro said.

He said the spas made a staggering amount of money, upward of $2.5 million over three years, from customers who came to Rockford after hearing about the services offered either by word-of-mouth or through newspaper advertisements.

At the center of this, he said, were Hwang and Lee.

��There is no dispute�� that prostitution took place at the spas, said U.S. federal defender Paul Flynn, who represents Lee.

��They��re going to prove to you that prostitution went on, of course they are. But that��s a different proposition than proving there was a conspiracy,�� he said.

Flynn said that his client is an East High School graduate who was known in the Korean community as someone who could speak English well and would often help non-English speakers get things done, such as helping them with a building permit.

Hwang��s attorney, Robert Aronson of Chicago, tried to insert the idea into jurors�� minds that his client was facing trumped up federal charges because local law-enforcement officials couldn��t or wouldn��t make a case.

��All the spas in Rockford were booming, until somebody thought ��We��ve got to put a stop to this,�� �� Aronson said.

��So they called in the feds, the FBI, the Secret Service ... when all they had to do was go into state court and get a warrant to shut it down.��

He added, sarcastically, ��Your tax dollars at work.��

Like Flynn, he said there was no conspiracy at play.

��She operated the business by herself,�� Aronson said. ��Make them prove the big conspiracy.��

Two witnesses were called Monday: Randall Sealby of the Rockford FBI office and Mi Ran Park, a former spa worker and manager who was originally charged with Lee and Hwang but made a deal with prosecutors.

Sealby said the FBI and other law-enforcement officials got involved in the case after reading an expose of the spa business that ran in the Rockford Register Star. He said the investigation included surveillance, trash pulls, and having an informant pose as a potential business contact with Lee while recording their conversations.

Park, who appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit, told the jury, through an interpreter, that she worked for Hwang at the Paradise as a masseur and prostitute.

She said she came to Rockford from Los Angeles because she heard there was money to be made and ��the police, unlike other towns, tend not to bother us that much.��

The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. today.


Dallas, Texas

Guilty Plea For North Texas Sex Slave Trafficking
Image


(CBS 11 News) DALLAS Each year, thousands of people are brought into the United States by human traffickers who trap illegal immigrants in what some call ��modern day slavery.��

North Texas is one area where a major crackdown is now underway. Federal agents say they recently created a task force to deal with human trafficking.

On Friday afternoon, Mi Na Malcom admitted to being involved in a human trafficking and sex slavery ring. The case stems from a raid on area spas last August.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say the raids are part of a rising number of human trafficking investigations in north Texas, but former federal prosecutor John Teakell says he hasn't seen a sex slave case here before.

��It's more common to find in the Dallas area something manual labor related," said Teakell, "as far as what they're doing for or with the aliens brought over, as opposed to a prostitution ring."

The U.S. Attorney says Malcom victimized society��s most vulnerable people and forced them into prostitution.

Malcom pled guilty to charges of harboring illegal immigrants for prostitution and financial gain, as well as cash smuggling.

In this case, smugglers brought the women to North Texas from South Korea.

Prosecutors say Malcom held the immigrants against their will and forced them to work at one of her spas in order to pay off the smuggling fees, and that she housed the women in the spas and used video surveillance.

Mosaic Family Services is a Dallas organization helping survivors of human trafficking. Bill Bernstein, one of the organization��s directors, said, ��These people are victims and they��ve been put in a situation which is best defined as a modern day form of slavery.��

Bernstein also said that trafficking is a growing problem in North Texas, but it��s impossible to tell how many are being victimized.

��We��re trying to help them learn in America, they can have a new life,�� said Bernstein. ��They can become self sufficient. They can make it on their own without depending on somebody that��s abusing them or taking advantage of them in some horrendous way.��

Some of the victims in Malcom��s case have returned to their homeland. Others are waiting to find out if they will be allowed to stay in the United States.

Malcom has been forced to give up her 2006 BMW, 2004 Lexus and more than $200,000 in cash.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 30, where Malcom faces a possible 20 years is prison.

(CBS 11 News)


New York City

Cops' brotherly love

Allegedly helped pimps duck raids; got cash, freebies

BY TAMER EL-GHOBASHY, JOHN MARZULLI and BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

House on 164th St. in Flushing, Queens, was 4 grand-a-day gold mine for pimps, officials said, accusing cops Jerry Svoronos and Dennis Kim of helping them operate.
Two cops were busted yesterday for allegedly protecting a Queens brothel from police raids in exchange for bribes and sex with prostitutes.

Officers Dennis Kim, 29, and Jerry Svoronos, 30, had been on the take for a year while assigned to a squad whose job was to crack down on street hookers, officials charged.

An angry Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who had hailed Kim and Svoronos in 2004 for their crimefighting service, said the pair "disgraced themselves."

A 10-month probe by the NYPD, the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed Kim and Svoronos followed orders from the brothel's owners to work on getting competing cathouses shut down.

"The corruption of law enforcement officers threatens the fabric of society and will not be tolerated," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf.

She said Kim and Svoronos were in the pockets of pimps Gina Kim and Geeho Chae.

They said Chae and Gina Kim, no relation to Dennis Kim, made $4,000 a day running the brothel out of a three-story brick apartment house at 57-24 164th St. in Flushing. Many of the prostitutes had been smuggled into the U.S. from Asia, Mauskopf said.

Detectives seized $800,000 from the couple's luxury car and rounded up 16 Korean and Chinese women working at the sex den Wednesday.

The reputed rogue cops came to know the brothel through their work in the conditions unit of Flushing's 109th Precinct, enforcing quality-of-life violations.

Neighbors said mostly Asian men in Mercedeses, BMWs and sometimes limousines patronized the brothel.

Despite having the two cops on their side, the owners worried about being shut down. They installed a surveillance camera in a window air conditioner to monitor who was approaching the house, officials said.

In May 2005, Gina Kim arranged to meet an NYPD detective who had busted her before. The detective suspected a bribe was in the works and went to his superiors.

Posing as a corrupt cop, the detective recorded meetings with Gina Kim and Chae in which they slipped him a total of $126,500 to ward off the law, officials said.

They also allegedly asked the detective to see what he could do about eliminating the competition. The detective got two rival brothels raided, one in Chinatown and another in Queens, as part of the sting operation.

By coincidence, Dennis Kim bumped into a friend, FBI agent Won Yoon, who unknown to the cop was supervising the corruption probe sparked by the detective who came forward.

Yoon secretly recorded Dennis Kim bragging about using Chae as an "unregistered confidential informant," saying the crime tips would to help land him a promotion.

"I wanted to be the No. 1 cop because I wasn't making sergeant," Officer Kim was recording saying. "You know, I wasn't smart enough."

He said he arranged freebies for Svoronos at the brothel, but never took a bribe.

But Chae and Gina Kim, both 37 and immigrants from Korea, told investigators they gave Officer Kim cash and that both he and Svoronos had romps on the house.

Neighbors said they want the brothel shut.

"I didn't want this in my neighborhood," said Dimas Abreu. "It's a nice place with a lot of kids."

Northwest Indiana


Feds: Spas part of brothel network
Prosecutors say suspects will flee if not monitored or jailed

BY BILL DOLAN
[email protected]
219.662.5328


HAMMOND | The U.S. attorney's office disclosed on Tuesday the Dyer and Highland spas they raided last week are part of nationwide network of what agents contend are fronts for oriental prostitutes.

Three women charged with managing the local prostitution ring were brought into court along with a large number of material witnesses, many of them suspected of working as prostitutes in the local spas. All of them needed a Korean translator to understand court proceedings.

U.S. Magistrate Andrew Rodovich ordered Schererville resident Sun Cha Thompson and Elk Grove Village, Ill., resident Bok Young to be freed on bond until trial, but they must wear electronic monitoring devices to ensure they don't flee.

He ordered Duluth, Ga., resident Ansil Hyun to remain behind bars on grounds she doesn't have long-standing ties to the area and could be a flight risk. Hyun burst into tears after learning of her continued detention.

The witnesses were brought into a closed court under a seal of secrecy that Assistant U.S. Attorney Sue Collins said is necessary because they are targeting several others yet to be arrested.

She said, "These (Lake County) spas are related to spas across the country." She said the defendants make a living "moving girls around the country and worried that if released on bond, the women "will disappear into this web of spas."

Local and federal agents launched raids Wednesday on the Sun Spa, 1064 Joliet St., Dyer; Tokyo Tanning and Day Spa, 2303 45th St., Highland; Barley Spa, 9636 Forrest Drive, Highland; and Singapore Spa, 2034 45th St., Highland.

Collins disclosed Thompson is involved with the Sun Spa of Dyer, the Singapore Spa of Highland and is owner of the Cozy Spa. Collins cited records indicating Thompson places unidentified items in a daily Korean newspaper on behalf of Cozy Spa.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement service has alleged in recent investigations of other brothels posing as health spas often recruit women from Korea and China.

Collins said Thompson also is wanted in Tampa, Fla., on criminal charges. Her attorney, Ben Murphy, denied this.

Merrillville lawyer Chuck Stewart said Hyun has pending prostitution-related charges in Texas and Georgia, but no criminal convictions.

Hammond lawyer James Foster said Young has two adult children and no family in Korea, although Collins contends Young, a naturalized citizen since 1986, has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Korea.

Defense lawyers argued the spas aren't a public danger. Stewart said there is no evidence of violence or drug involvement and said any sex that took place in the spas was consensual.

[dogbert]

We need to give Koreans visa-free entry to the U.S.

We need this kind of entrepreunerism.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

You don't see any of their customers complaining.

[Moldy Rutabaga]