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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
-SF operation allegedly run by Young Joon Yang, who lived in Beverly Hills. Allegedly used YJY Travel and Tour, a travel agency in the city (3001 Geary Blvd), to bring in women from Korea, and Yang's Taxi, a cab company, to transport them. Prostitutes were also flown to work in Las Vegas, Dallas, New York, and Boston. -Other major players: Wu Sang Nah (aka Kang Nah), Sung Yong Kim (aka Nam Kim), Myong Su Ahn (Paula Lee), Nam Young Lee. -Some evidence that ringleaders for SF and Southern California were communicating with each other and sharing girls. -Targeted women from impoverished areas of South Korea, offering them jobs as waitresses & bar hostesses in America, and charging them fees that they would then have to pay off. -King's Massage Parlor (315 Jessie Street, SF) Allegedly ran by Fred A. Frazier. Building owned by Ahdi M. Nashashibi, who was also charged. This was a major outpost in the operations; many prostitutes arrived there first before being moved elsewhere. -Golden Flower Steam & Sauna Spa (215 Second Street, SF) Allegedly ran by Anthony Gar Lau, who pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sentenced to one year in prison. Also ordered to forfeit $1M in profits from the spa and two years of supervised release after his prison term. -House on Knollwood Drive, Saratoga Operated by Keun Sung Lee. -Sun Spa (Geary Blvd, SF) and Acucare Oriental Spa (Emeryville) also involved
Response and intervention
See "Intervention" for details. June 30, 2005 raid involved a force of 400 federal & local law officers. Joint nine-month investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, FBI, ICE, SFPD, IRS, and the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. Raided suspected brothels spread out around SF, including North Beach, Tenderloin, & Excelsior districts. One parlor in Emeryville. Execution of search warrants at 29 massage parlors & residential brothels. Ultimately about 50 brothels, residences, & businesses were searched. Arrested 27 suspects & found over 100 women working as prostitutes. Seized approximately $2 million in cash. SF raid coincided with similar operation in Southern CA where agents arrested 18 people and took 46 women into custody. Women were working in suspected brothels in Santa Monica, LA Koreatown, and Redondo Beach. In July of 2005, law enforcement agents raided ten brothels in San Francisco they had identified as suspected trafficking sites and "rescued" over 120 women. Authorities then detained the women at a military base in California; federal officials questioned the women to determine their status as possible victims of trafficking before calling in trained service providers twenty-four hours later. By the time advocates arrived, federal officials had already decided that the majority of the women were not legal victims of trafficking, and placed them in immigration detention. Advocates struggled to convince officials to interpret the law more broadly in screenings of the remaining women, in direct conflict with the narrow federal framework. In this case and others, advocates report that when clients identify themselves as voluntary or consenting participants in their migration or employment at any point, authorities deem them ineligible for benefits under T-visas as legal victims of trafficking. If clients do not fit traditional conceptions of involuntary or non-consenting victims, they may instead face deportation, like many of the women "rescued" in the Operation Gilded Cage case. Advocates also comment that often they can only secure certifications from law enforcement agents enabling their clients to apply for T-visas if their clients cooperate exactly with law enforcement during the investigation and prosecution process. Authorities deprived one woman "rescued" in Operation Gilded Cage of trafficking victim status, citing that she was "uncooperative," after she decided that she did not wish to cooperate with law enforcement and instead, return to Korea. Authorities also denied her the ability to return to Korea and held her in jail as a material witness for the case. SAGE