Thread: HI - Feds dismiss largest US human trafficking case

Published July 20, 2012

Associated Press

HONOLULU – A federal judge dismissed human trafficking charges Friday against executives and business associates of a labor recruiting company accused of exploiting hundreds of farmer workers from Thailand by putting them into debt, confiscating their passports and threatening to deport them.

The move came after prosecutors requested dismissal of the case against CEO Mordechai Orian and Director of International Relations Pranee Tubchumpol of Global Horizons Manpower Inc., and business associates.

Eight defendants were originally indicted and three later pleaded guilty.

Authorities accused the Los Angeles-based company of manipulating 600 Thai workers it placed in farms across the United States. It was the U.S. government's largest-ever human trafficking case.

Orian's trial had been set to take place in Honolulu next month.

The case was in jeopardy after federal prosecutors abruptly dropped similar accusations against owners of Hawaii's Aloun Farms last year. That case prompted an investigation that found the federal government wouldn't be able to prove the charges in the Global Horizons case, according to the dismissal order.

"Based on this further investigation, the government has determined that dismissal of this matter is in the interest of justice, because the government is unable to prove the elements of the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt," the order said.

Michael Green, Global Horizons' attorney in Honolulu, called the dismissal a "moral victory" but said it doesn't take away all the time, money and emotional toll of fighting the charges.

"To dismiss a case with no intention of bringing it back as a new indictment is very unusual," Green said. "You never see the government just walk away from a case that they spent millions of dollars on."

After accusations were dropped against Aloun Farms owners Alec and Michael Sou, the fate of the Global Horizons case became unclear. The companies were accused of using the same tactics to keep foreign workers in their service.

The case against the Sou brothers fell apart when lead prosecutor Susan French conceded she inaccurately stated to a grand jury that workers couldn't be charged recruiting fees when they traveled to Hawaii in 2004. The law was changed in late 2008 to prohibit recruiting fees.

French stepped down from the prosecution team shortly afterward because of unspecified health problems.

The same team that conceded the case against the Sou brothers after only three days of testimony was expected to handle Orian's trial.

Melissa Vincenty, the immigration attorney representing more than 50 of the farm workers, said her clients will be disappointed that they won't be able to testify in court. She said the dismissal doesn't affect their immigration status, as many of them have applied for trafficking victim status.

"Just because the criminal case doesn't move forward it doesn't mean their cases had no merit," she said. "We still believe in our clients."

One Old Vet

Feds dismiss largest US human trafficking case | Fox News

Years, Millions Later U.S. Drops “Largest Human Trafficking Case in U.S. History”

July 24, 2012
Judicial Watch

After spending millions of dollars to prosecute what it touted as the largest human trafficking case in U.S. history, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has suspiciously dismissed it claiming that it lacked evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

This despite the fact that three defendants in the case against a Los Angeles-based labor recruiting company (Global Horizons) pleaded guilty. You can’t make this stuff up. The DOJ went from one extreme to another, after dedicating two years and blowing millions of taxpayer dollars, and what do Americans get? A vague government statement that obviously conceals details of the scandal.

The three defendants who pleaded guilty will now receive the opportunity to retract their pleas, as if nothing ever happened. Here is why; a team of government attorneys and agents determined the government is “unable to prove the elements of the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to a DOJ spokeswoman quoted in a local newspaper covering the case in Honolulu. The paper called it a “stunning turnaround.”

Less than a year ago a similar case against a different company was also dropped because the same federal prosecutors evidently screwed up. In that case the DOJ accused the owners of Hawaii’s Aloun Farms of utilizing illegal tactics to keep foreign workers in their service. Charges were dismissed after the lead prosecutor misstated the law in front of the grand jury, according to a news report. Where did these folks go to law school?

The Global Horizons case got going in 2010 when the feds, with great fanfare, obtained a grand jury indictment against the firm for exploiting hundreds of Thai workers and keeping them as indentured laborers on farms in several states, including Hawaii and Washington. In all, six people were charged in the human trafficking conspiracy and the DOJ claimed they faced decades in prison.

A year later half of the defendants pleaded guilty and the number of exploited workers went up to 600. The DOJ issued a press release announcing the guilty pleas and Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said it was the “largest human trafficking scheme ever seen by the Department of Justice.” Perez reiterated his agency’s commitment to “prosecuting cases of human trafficking, both large and small, in order to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our country.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency responsible for enforcing work place discrimination laws, also filed a lawsuit against Global Horizons, saying it was the largest human trafficking case in agriculture to date. At some farms the Thai workers were forced to live in dilapidated housing infested with rats and insects and they were forbidden from leaving the premises, according to the EEOC. On the job, they endured screaming, threats and physical assaults.

“Foreign workers should be treated as equals when working in the U.S., not as second class citizens,” said an EEOC district director announcing his agency’s lawsuit. “All workers – foreign and U.S. – are protected under the law and have the right to complain of such employment abuses which poison the moral fabric of our society.”

Years, Millions Later U.S. Drops