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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
U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway on June 22 also ordered the South Korean businessman to pay $1.8 million in restitution to about 300 Vietnamese and Chinese nationals who were lured to the U.S. archipelago in the South Pacific to earn what they thought would be a steady stream of dollars. But instead of stitching clothing for U.S. manufacturers and retailers in humane conditions at the factory, the workers endured abuse, threats, lack of food and pay, confinement, sexual advances and unsanitary and stifling-hot dorms. The Vietnamese workers paid up to $8,000 per person to Vietnamese government labor export offices for the opportunity and documents to work at Lee's factory, which operated from 1998 to 2001. Yesterday, the Lynnwood resident said he is concerned about 90 workers who suffered abuse at the garment factory but who were later sent back to Vietnam. Many, he said, have lost their homes to loan sharks who lent them money at high interest rates to go abroad. The loan sharks, he added, also are harassing the repatriated workers for money owed. "I was thinking more about the victims in Vietnam," he said. "I knew (Lee) was going to jail. He deserved to go to jail. The length of time didn't concern me that much."
Response and intervention
By testifying against Lee at a federal trial in Hawaii, the factory workers who did not return to Vietnam received special "T" visas from the U.S. government. Those visas enable human trafficking victims to reside in the United States. Virginia Sudbury and Christa Lin, two lawyers on American Samoa, and Vietnamese community activists in the continental United States learned about the problems and vowed to help. Later, the U.S. government sent FBI agents to American Samoa and Lee's federal trial proceeded in Hawaii. After learning about the workers' plight, Le took a leave of absence from Microsoft and visited the factory. There, the Vietnam War refugee served as a translator