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Couple to be sentence on forced labor charges

By Stephanie Hutson, Staff Writer
(Created: Tuesday, October 17, 2006)

Coppell resident Sung Bum Chang will be sentenced today in a Dallas court on forced labor charges that carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, a $500,000 fine and restitution.

Chang pled guilty on June 12 to one count of conspiracy to provide or obtain forced labor and one count of forced labor. The former owner of a Dallas karaoke bar on Walnut Hill Lane, Club Wa, used an international smuggling network to bring South Korean women to the United States, where he later forced them to work in his club as hostesses.

“A recommendation has been made by the probation council and it will be quite a few years,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana, who is prosecuting the case.

The hearing began Monday and a judge is expected to make a final ruling today.

In most sentencing hearings, the probation council makes a recommendation to the court regarding an appropriate sentence within the detention guidelines and, minus objection from the defense, the judge will issue a sentence based on that recommendation.

“In this case, the defense council has made objections to certain points in the recommendation,” Saldana said. “The hearing is about working out those issues.”

“[Monday] the question was whether he was a leader or organizer of the smuggling ring, and the judge found that he was, so that will increase the sentence. There are two more significant issues to work out [today],” Saldana said.

Sung Bum Chang’s wife, Hyang Kyung Chang, will also be sentenced today. She pled guilty to aiding and abetting the employment of unlawful aliens.

“She has pled to something very minor, and the maximum there is six months jail time,” Saldana said. “With the failure to have any record, it could very well be probation.”

She faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison and restitution and has agreed to pay a $21,000 fine.

Sung Bum Chang paid the smuggling debts of several South Korean women and forced them to live in his home and work at his club six to seven nights a week until their debts were paid off.

“This 21st century form of involuntary servitude is most insidious,” said Richard Roper in a press release, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas. “We, in law enforcement, will continue to aggressively pursue those who exploit and prey on venerable immigrants who come to our shores seeking a better life.”

According to court documents, Sung Bum Chang admitted to holding their passports and using physical restraints to stop the women from leaving the club or the couple’s two-story Coppell home on Greenway Drive. He monitored their movements with video surveillance inside the house and business and stationed guards at the club to restrict them from leaving.

One woman jumped from a second-story window in order to escape from the house and fled with the help of an anonymous person, according to Department of Justice reports.

On April 26, 2005, federal and local Coppell law enforcement officials executed a search warrant on the Changs’ home, where they found six undocumented women. Chang was arrested and later released on bond. The women have either been returned to South Korea or remain in the United States seeking immigration status.

The Sung Bum and Hyang Kyung Chang pled guilty and face sentencing in U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay’s federal court in Dallas.