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Brothel bust: "Big Sister MaekDo" jailed in federal prostitution case

Federal prosecutors say she did business at One Custom House St. in downtown Providence

03:47 PM EDT on Thursday, August 17, 2006

By KATE BRAMSON
projo.com staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- A federal magistrate ordered alleged Providence brothel manager "Big Sister MaekDo" held in prison today pending a hearing in a New York federal court for her role in a human sex slave trafficking ring spread throughout the Northeast.


The Rhode Island woman, 54-year-old Kyong Polachek, argued in court this afternoon that she was not the woman federal authorities were looking for. Her defense attorney, Lee Vilker, told Magistrate Judge David Martin that his client was only a cook at the downtown Providence establishment Down Town Spa, located on the fourth floor of One Custom House St.


Based on evidence presented by federal prosecutors -- including tapped cell phone conversations in which Polachek asked a New York man to send more sex workers to Providence following several arrests at the "spa" in May -- Martin rejected the argument, ordering Polachek to appear in a federal court in New York.


Polachek is among 31 people arrested Tuesday and charged in a wide-ranging human trafficking operation. With the arrests, officials said, more than 70 enslaved sex workers have been freed. They are now being questioned in secret locations, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


Polachek is identified in U.S. District Court documents only as a brothel owner/manager, age 54, who is also known as “Ji-yeon Kim,” “Jennifer” and “Hana.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York described Polachek as being from Rhode Island, but could not provide more details.


This afternoon, Polachek faces an identity hearing in U.S. District Court in Providence before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Martin. In that hearing, the U.S. government has to prove that she is the person identified in the complaint issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, according to Martin’s office.


In the complaint, by Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Won Yoon, Polachek is identified along with others for “knowingly and intentionally” transporting an individual “in interstate and foreign commerce with intent that such individual engage in prostitution.”


The complaint alleges that Ji-yeon, also known as Polachek, called one of the defendants on March 4, 2006, seeking help finding “a young, pretty girl for a ‘fantasy’ brothel.” Ji-yeon allegedly told the defendant that sex workers at her new brothel usually made $600 per day on the weekdays and more than $1,000 per day on weekends. Ji-yeon allegedly said she expected an increase in customers and “a lot of support from Manhattan drivers” since she had worked as a sex worker in Manhattan for a long time.


The complaint also identifies a Rhode Island brothel, named as “Downtown” and owned by “MaekDo,” where a brothel worker identified as Kyung-Jin was arrested during a previous raid.


At least one establishment in downtown Providence was involved in the bust this week, Thomas Connell, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Rhode Island, said yesterday, and referred more questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York.


According to Providence police, the brothel was located at 1 Custom House St. A fourth-floor business there, advertised as “Downtown Spa” but whose name on the building says “Down Town Acupressure” was closed. A sign on the door read, “Sorry! Down town closed today. Please come back. Thank you.”


Another of the defendants listed in the complaint spoke of the possibility that Kyung-Jin could be deported after she was detained by immigration officials because she did not have a green card, according to the complaint.


Since May 2005, the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have conducted a joint investigation into the smuggling, trafficking and transportation of women from Korea into the United States for prostitution.


The investigation determined that a large number of Korean brothels along the eastern seaboard from Massachusetts to Georgia relied on the services of a network of Korean middlemen based in Queens, N.Y., to arrange for prostitutes to work at and be transported to and between the brothels, according to the complaint.



The defendants are charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York with crimes including conspiracy to engage in human trafficking, conspiracy to engage in interstate transportation of women for the purpose of prostitution and interstate transportation of women for the purpose of prostitution, conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and transportation of illegal aliens and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.


-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples






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