FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CR
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1998
(202) 616-2765
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
TDD (202) 514-1888
THREE INDIVIDUALS ARRESTED FOR FORCING WOMEN INTO SLAVERY WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three individuals who lured women from China to the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) by promising them waitressing jobs,
and instead held hem in slavery and forced them to work as prostitutes, were arrested late
yesterday, the Justice Department announced. The charges are the first to come out of the new Worker Exploitation Task Force that was
created by Attorney General Janet Reno earlier this year. The criminal complaint, filed in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, charges Kwon Mo
Young, Kwon Soon Oh, and Meng Ying Yu with violating federal civil rights and sexual
exploitation statutes. Kwon Soon Oh was also charged with the illegal use of a firearm. The
three were arrested late yesterday in Saipan. "We formed the Worker Exploitation Task Force to put an end to the type of modern day
slavery such as that allegedly going on in the Northern Mariana Islands," said Acting Assistant
Attorney General for Civil Rights Bill Lann Lee. "We take these allegations seriously and are
determined to ensure that all people live freely in our country." The complaint alleges that, from 1996 through 1998, the three recruited Chinese women
to Saipan by offering them the opportunity to earn money as waitresses in a restaurant they
owned. All of the women were required to pay the three a sum of money that would cover their
travel and visa expenses. When the women arrived in Saipan, they were taken to an apartment located above the
restaurant. There, the women learned that, instead of waitressing, they would be required to
work as "bargirls" in the defendants karaoke bar, where they would be forced to have sex with
customers. If any woman resisted, they were subject to physical violence and often times
threatened with death. To discourage women from escaping, the three also told the women that
immigration officials would find them and they would be deported. If convited the three defendants face up to life in prison. The government will also seek
restitution for the women who were enslaved. Each defendant is being held in Guam. Last April, Attorney General Janet Reno announced an inter-agency federal task force to
combat the serious problem of modern-day slavery and worker exploitation in the United States. The task force, co-chaired by Mr. Lee and the Solicitor of the Labor Department, utilizes
the resources of the Department of Labor, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division, Violence Against Women Office,
and Office of Victims of Crime, as well as the FBI, and INS to create a coordinated effort to
investigate and prosecute these cases of involuntary servitude. In addition to the federal task force, today's actions also are the result of the
Administration's CNMI Initiative on Labor, Immigration and Law Enforcement, a broad based
multi-agency initiative designed to increase resources and oversight in the CNMI, a U.S.
commonwealth located in Micronesia. As part of the initiative, an attorney from the Civil Rights
Division's Criminal Section was sent to investigate recurring complaints of civil rights violations
including treatment of women and children trafficked in the international sex trade. Over the past three years alone, the Justice Department has brought ten involuntary
servitude cases involving more than 150 victims. This is also the fifth case of international
trafficking leading to an arrest or indictment brought in the CNMI in the past year. 98-548
AND PROSTITUTION IN NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS