Forced Labor2009
United States US
The owners of one of the state's largest fruit and vegetable farms were indicted late Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and visa fraud. Alec and Mike Sou of Aloun Farms Hawaii and a thai labor recruiter were charged with human trafficking conspiracy. Aloun Farms Hawaii is the state's second-largest fruit and vegetable farm, employing an estimated 200 people. But the Justice Department says some of the company's labor practices are illegal. The Sou brothers and Thai labor recruiter William Khoo are accused of devising a scheme to hire 44 Thai nationals by enticing them to come to Hawaii with false promises of lucrative jobs. According to the indictment, they maintained their labor through threats of serious economic harm. Other workers at the farm today shared details they were aware of. "This happened about a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week and a half, had couple of immigrant cards that just expired," said Donovan Tangonan, a delivery driver for the company. "Instead of letting them get to renew them - they just detained them right there." According to the indictment, the trio organized for the Thai workers to pay high recruitment fees which were financed by debts secured with the workers' family properties and homes. The indictment also charges the defendants engaged in visa fraud conspiracy and that the Sous confiscated passports and failed to honor employment contracts. Both brothers declined to comment. Workers say they aren't aware of any other problems. "Pretty much everybody here is all legal, other than that we just had a little mishap with those two people," said Tangonan. Aloun Farms annual gross sales are estimated at $8 million. If convicted, Alec and Mike Sou each face maximum sentences of 15 years in prison and Khoo faces a maximum of 10 years. This case is being investigated by the F-B-I and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement. http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/Aloun-Farm-Owners-Face-Human-Trafficking/ArIJ-vhsZ0K_KF5ohngGeQ.cspx
Forced Labor2009
United States US
7 farms and 17 farmers were charged http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/us-department-of-labor-uncovers,921927.shtml
Forced Labor2009
United States US
A 28-year-old St. Paul man, Byronte Juwann Reed (also known as Santana) pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Paul to transporting a girl from Minnesota to Illinois for the purpose of committing commercial sex acts. In his plea agreement, Reed admitted meeting the victim, who was younger than 18, in June of 2008 and recruiting her to commit sexual acts in exchange for money. From June of 2008 through July of 2008, the girl lived with Reed and others so she could participate in the commercial sex trade. In addition, Reed admitted transporting the girl from Minneapolis to Chicago, Illinois, in order for her to engage in commercial sex. Reed also admitted that physical force was used to ensure that the victim would participate in the sexual activity.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
The workers were trafficked by the Company Audubon Pointe, a New Orleans apartment complex affected by Katrina. Audubon Pointe housed the non documented workers in their unfinished apartments while they renovated other apartments. The workers were frequently unpaid or paid very late. When the workers complained, management threatened to evict them and call the police. These threats forced the workers to continue work without pay.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Two people have been arrested for allegedly withholding pay from two of their employees and threatening them with deportation. The FBI took Young Jo Kwon and his wife, Jessie Kwon, into custody Tuesday and charged them with five counts of theft and forgery. The Kwons are accused of forcing two South Korean immigrant employees to work without pay while they were the owners of Osaka Sushi in Denver. They allegedly threatened two of their employees with the revocation of their "sponsorship," which the Kwons claimed would result in the deportation of the employees' families. One of the informed the FBI that Young Jo Kwon claimed ties to the Korean mafia, and Kwon allegedly told Choi "he knew how to hurt someone who did not obey."
Forced Labor2008
United States US
From Chattanooga Times Free Press, July 28, 2008: One of the most recent cases in Chattanooga occurred July 11, when two people were victims of an apparent “coyote” ransom scam, according to Chattanooga police and U.S. Immigration and Custom officials. The victims told police they paid a man to transport them from Valdosta, Ga., to Oklahoma City to search for work. Once they arrived in Oklahoma, they were kidnapped and told their families would have to pay $15,000 for their freedom. They escaped from the kidnapper’s car in Chattanooga, they told police. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/jul/28/chattanooga-smuggling-related-crimes-increase-spre/ http://www.wdef.com/news/human_trafficking_with_ties_to_chattanooga/07/2008
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Kil Soo Lee, former owner of a Daewoosa American Somoa factory, forced over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese people to work in his garment factory. The victims were recruited from China and state-owned labor companies in Vietnam. Each worker paid fees ranging from $5,000 to $8,000 to be brought the U.S. and for their job in the factory. Lee and his co-workers threatened the victims with deportation if they spoke against their poor working conditions and minimal pay. In March of 1999, workers complained about their situation to local residents in an attempt to get more food. Lee responded by arresting and deporting some of the victims, depriving the rest of food, and physically beating the workers so they continued working. A woman lost an eye due to one of these beatings. The victims continued to work in the factory until November 2000. When the victims were recruited to come work in the factory they were promised $408 per month in wages, as well as free food and housing. They were not given any of these things, and Lee took their travel documents. The clothes made in the factory were commonly sold in Sears and JcPenny stores.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Ramon Maldonado (age 49) of Olympia, Washington is the former owner of Ramon's Flooring and Carpet Installation, Inc., of Lacey, Washington. After his arrest, his business changed its name to JC Flooring. In June, 2005, Maldonado offered to employ a man (we'll call him J.G.) in his flooring business. J.G. is a Mexican National who was living in Apatzingan, Michoacan, Mexico. Ramon Maldonado provided money to J.G. to pay his smuggling fees. Once J.G. arrived in the US, Maldonado required him to repay his smuggling fees by working for his flooring company. Maldonado told J.G. that he could be arrested and deported because he was in the country illegally if he tried to leave. J.G. lived in the garage of Maldonado's home while working 14-17 hours a day installing carpet and providing manual labor to the flooring company.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Timothy Bradley and Kathleen O’Del recruited four men from Jamaica to come to the U.S. to work for Bradley’s tree cutting business. After arrival, the victims were threatened verbally and physically to work, their passports were taken, and they were not allowed to go places freely. The victims were forced to work for the Bradley Tree Service during the spring and summer of 2000 and 2001. Bradeley ordered his dog to attack one of the men when he attempted to escape. The victims were forced to live in a tool shed and a trailer in the couple’s backyard, and were charged $50 rent each week. When one of the victims was injured on the job he was denied medical care.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
In response to the Devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina Signal International contracted with a recruiting firm run by Sachin Dewan. Dewan to bring 500 Indian construction workers on H2-B ten month visa. Signal and Dewan required the men to pay up to $20,000 to secure a position and visa. The skilled welders and construction workers were brought to the US under false pretense believing they were receiving permanent residency for their work. Many of the men were forced to live in cramped quarters with 20 other men and required to pay 1,050 for food and shelter.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Million Express Manpower Inc. recruited 22 Thai workers from Bangkok to work in the agriculture industry in the United States promising them H2A Visas, three years worth of work, and travel/living expenses. The recruiters required each worker to pay up to $11,000 in fees and confiscated their passports and tickets as collateral for payment. Upon arriving in the United State they were forced to work on Howell Farms in North Carolina until they were relocated to New Orleans. In New Orleans they worked on renovating hotels destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The trafficking victims were forced to live in the dilapidated hotels while they were renovating them.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Husband and wife, Mary Yue Chueng and Hong Wei Yang, were owners of the Kimtex Factory which employed approximately 20 Chinese immigrants. In January of 2000, Cheung and Yang started to skim from their workers' ages. They stopped paying their employees altogether in May of 2000 and eventually closed and abandoned the factory in July. They were able to get away with this at the time by showing inspectors fake time records, hiding unpaid wages.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Close to 500 guestworkers from India were trafficked to the US through the H-2B program to work in Signal International's shipyards after Hurricane Katrina, lured by false promises of lawful permanent residency. Recruiters held their passports and visas, coerced them into paying extraordinary fees and threatened them with serious harm; in the US they were required to live in Signal's guarded, overcrowded labor camps.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
In 2004 Lueleni Fetongi Maka brought seven Tongan men to Hawaii, promising them a better life. He then housed them in poor conditions and forced them to work in his landscaping business. Maka maintained control of the victims through beatings and threatening deportation. At times the beatings were so severe they could not work because of their injuries. The victims worked sunrise to sunset trimming trees and building rock walls. Maka paid victims between $100 and $200, if at all.
Forced Labor2007
United States US
Francesco Insolia, the plant manager, Dilia Costa, the payroll manager and Gloria Melo, the office manager of Michael Bianco, Inc. were arrested for forcing illegal immigrants, mostly from Guatemala and El Salvador, to work in harsh conditions for long periods of time without proper payment.
Forced Labor2007
United States US
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Forced Labor2007
United States US
Cesar Navarrete and Geovanni Navarrete beat, threatened, and restrained Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, forcing them to work as agricultural laborers. The farms were located in Flordia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The victims were underpaid, and continually mounted escalating debts, and were physically threatened if they tried to leave before their debt had been paid off. At the time of investigation, the family was holding 15 workers on the property. The Navarretes initially brought the workers to the U.S. to work picking the produce in their fields.
Forced Labor2007
United States US
Jose Hernan Moreno-Sevilla and Alejandro M. Meza prosecutors say Jose Hernan Moreno-Sevilla and Alejandro M. Meza were paid to help a Peruvian man and others obtain illegal visas. The Peruvian man and at least two others were "loaded into a rented truck" in Arizona and brought to Orem to work for Hernan's construction company, court papers show. Each worker reportedly paid more than $10,000 for the move. While living with Hernan, each man worked up to 14 hours daily, over a six day week, earning just $9,500 annually. According to court papers Hernan kept all but $1,000 in wages and told the men they owed him the funds to cover costs related to their "smuggling, housing and transporting." Sources: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705301763/Utah-to-crack-down-on-human-trafficking.html http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2374359
Forced Labor2007
United States US
There was a 3:00 am raid of the Signal International Shipyard worker's trailers by the Signal Security Guards telling everyone they would be deported. A brave worker made a frantic phone call to the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice because of the incident. Some workers were held hostage in the TV room of the shipyard while all the workers struggled with the idea of suicide rather than returning in debt to their families and facing Indian Aid Debt.
Forced Labor2006
United States US
Leo Salazar Express Forestry, Inc., Rick Thomas and Sandy Thomas Guest Worker H-2B Visa A delegation of seven individuals, including an Express Forestry manager, confronted the wife and sister of Hugo Martin Recinos, lead plaintiff in the case, seeking contact information for him. They attempted to bribe his wife, Maria, by offering more than $6,600 in return for his withdrawal from the case.
Forced Labor2005
United States US
Between 2001 and 2005, a ring operating as Beauty Search Inc. recruited women in Ukraine, smuggled them into the US, in some cases through Mexico, and compelled them to work in Detroit-area exotic dance clubs for the ring's profit.
Forced Labor2005
United States US
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."
Forced Labor2005
United States US
Ron Evans recruited workers from homeless shelters in New Orleans, Tampa, and Miami, among other cities, promising them good jobs and housing. The victims then came to Evans’ labor camps in Palatka, FL and Newton Grove, NC. Evans then deducted money for rent, food, crack cocaine, and alcohol from the workers’ pay. In Palatka, the camp was surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. Ron Evans worked for the grower Frank Johns, who in 2004 served as Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (a lobbying organization within the Florida agricultural industry).
Forced Labor2005
United States US
While living in Juventino, Mexico, Olivia Zepeda recruited four workers to work for her three sons’ roofing business, Golden Roofing LLC. The workers signed four-year work contracts with the brothers. They took a bus to a border town in July 2006, and a smuggler took them across the border. In Austin, Texas, the victims met up with two of the brothers (Juan and Jenaro Gutierrez) who drove them to St. Louis. The smuggler was allegedly paid $4,000 per worker. After arriving in St. Louis, the victims were abused, threatened, and their activities were restricted. Their smuggling debt kept increasing every time they asked about it.