Domestic ServitudeArchive 2008–2016

Domestic Servitude in Falls Church (2009)

A domestic servitude case from 2009 in Falls Church, United States.

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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?

What happened

Prosecutors say Lubis threatened the women and their families with violence if they disobeyed him, and held their passports so they couldn't flee. The list of Lubis' 50 clients divulged in court filings by federal prosecutors includes a high-profile Washington attorney, multiple doctors -- among them a high-ranking doctor at a Maryland hospital -- and an engineer who invented an electric backup system for houses that use well water. No charges have been filed against the people who employed the women, and The Examiner has chosen not to release their names. But prosecutors had tough words for the wealthy area homeowners who used the slave labor. "The various employers are also participants" in Lubis' scheme, prosecutors wrote. "They knew or were willfully blind to the fact that the victims were illegal aliens and that Lubis harbored them." Lubis' actions amount to what human trafficking experts call modern-day slavery. "Traffickers take advantage of desperation," said Mark Lagon, director of the Polaris Project and former head of the State Department's human trafficking office. "They take advantage of people in such flagrant ways that it's slavery." Andrea Powell, director of Fair Fund, an advocacy group for human trafficking victims, said, "People are so desperate to come to the U.S. that they are willing to put up with all kinds of abuse, including slavery."

Response and intervention

The list of Lubis' 50 clients divulged in court filings by federal prosecutors includes a high-profile Washington attorney, multiple doctors -- among them a high-ranking doctor at a Maryland hospital -- and an engineer who invented an electric backup system for houses that use well water. No charges have been filed against the people who employed the women, and The Examiner has chosen not to release their names. But prosecutors had tough words for the wealthy area homeowners who used the slave labor. "The various employers are also participants" in Lubis' scheme, prosecutors wrote. "They knew or were willfully blind to the fact that the victims were illegal aliens and that Lubis harbored them." Lubis' actions amount to what human trafficking experts call modern-day slavery. "Traffickers take advantage of desperation," said Mark Lagon, director of the Polaris Project and former head of the State Department's human trafficking office. "They take advantage of people in such flagrant ways that it's slavery." Several of the 20 women have helped authorities build their case against Lubis, who is expected to be sentenced to up to eight years later this month. His sentencing was originally slated for Wednesday, but was postponed. He has pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants for commercial and financial gain. At least four of the women have obtained special visas that allow victims of human trafficking to stay in the U.S., authorities said. Those four women still live with the Potomac employers who hired them from Lubis, the employers confirmed. One of the Potomac clients served as Lubis' funnel into the high society, prosecutors wrote in court documents. That woman employed one of Lubis' victims and then referred friends and neighbors to him.

Nearby cases

All 892 in the United States →

Domestic Servitude2006

Jefferson, Virginia, United States, 2006

United States US

Soripada Lubis, 54, a naturalized American citizen originally from Indonesia, pleaded guilty to harboring illegal aliens for commercial advantage and private financial gain. Lubis admitted that he harbored between six and 24 aliens and that he was a leader and organizer of his enterprise. Lubis’ wife, Siti Chadidjah Siregar, a citizen of Indonesia, pleaded guilty to aiding her husband to keeping at least 15 women in there basement on weekends. Lubis and Siregar have kept up to 11 undocumented Indonesian women in their crowded basement to live with and work as housekeepers for wealthy families in Potomac, Md. Some of the women slept three to a bed. Lubis imposed various rules on the Indonesian women that restrained their freedom of movement and him and his wife confiscated the womens’ passports and threatened to kill their families and alert immigration officials if they left. Lubis and Siregar charged the women $375 per month for "rent" and transportation, plus fees for "taxes" and to send money to Indonesia. During the last five years, Lubis and Siregar made more than $90,000 from their enterprise. Lubis, or an unnamed relative, would drive the women to households in places like Potomac, where they worked and lived during the week, the statement said. Investigators say some of the women had come to the United States legally, but fell into Lubis’ clutches after they overstayed their visas, or were persuaded by his offers of financial rewards to leave their original employers and violate their visas. Lubis recruited them after meeting them at parks or malls.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016

Sex Trafficking2006

Washington, D.C., United States, 2006

United States US

Intercepted phone calls and the discovery of police bribes led to the demise of this trafficking ring. A wiretap of a cell phone used by Tae Hoon Kim, a Flushing-based middleman and transported, led to the discovery of the Korean owned brothels. Approximately 67 Korean women were taken into custody to be questioned on whether or not they knew they were being forced into prostitution.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016

CSEC2011

Springfield, Virginia, United States, 2011

United States US

Rances Ulices Amaya, a/k/a “Blue” or “Murder,” 23, of Springfield, VA, was indicted November 23, 2011, on charges of conspiracy and three counts of sex trafficking of a minor. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison for each sex trafficking count and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy. According to court documents, Amaya is a leader of the Guanacos Lokotes Salvatrucha (GLS) clique of MS-13. In June 2009 and throughout the fall of that year, Amaya is accused of conspiring with others to recruit multiple juvenile females to work as a prostitutes and transporting them throughout Northern Virginia for appointments that Amaya had arranged with clients. He is accused of providing the juveniles with alcohol and narcotics to facilitate the prostitution scheme, along with remaining with the juveniles during prostitution appointments to ensure the clients did not violate the rules he had set for the sexual encounter.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016