Thread: Prostitution alleged at Fairfield spa (Illegals)

http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_4904969


Prostitution alleged at Fairfield spa
DANIEL TEPFER dtepfer@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 12/26/2006 11:46:56 PM EST

FAIRFIELD — For 16 years, police say this town kept a dirty secret.

Young Korean women, smuggled into this country, were kept in slavelike conditions and forced to perform sex acts on men to pay back the cost of their passage, according to police.

Authorities said it was all going on above the former Devore's Bakery in the western edge of downtown.

Following a two-year investigation, police said they closed down the Seven Star Oriental Health Spa with the arrest of its owner, Usun Paek.

Paek, 50, of Vesper Street, a Korean immigrant, was charged with promoting prostitution.

She was released on a promise to appear in court pending arraignment in Superior Court on Jan. 4.

Detective Peter Bravo said police first stumbled onto the alleged prostitution operation in November 2004 while conducting an unrelated investigation of checks being stolen and forged from the spa, at 1981 Post Road. At the spa, he said, he encountered a woman who appeared terrified at his presence and refused to give her name.

He said subsequent surveillance of the spa confirmed information that young Asian women were being housed there. He said Paek was the only woman seen leaving the building.

Bravo said an undercover officer on May 12 was sent into the spa. The officer was met inside by Paek and he agreed to pay her $60 for a 45-minute massage.

The officer was instructed to undress and lay face down on a table. A short time later, Bravo said a younger Korean female, who
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identified herself only as Mimi, climbed on top of the officer and began to massage his pelvic area.

On Nov. 7, Bravo said, an undercover officer was again sent into the spa. After agreeing to a 30-minute massage, Bravo said the officer was led by Paek to a "treatment" room and instructed to undress.

A short time later, Paek returned with a young Korean woman who identified herself as Sopia. Bravo said the woman kissed the officer on the neck and massaged his genital area. During the massage, she told him she had arrived from Korea a month before.

Bravo said when police eventually confronted Paek about the activities she expressed concern about bringing disgrace to her husband and family because of her illegal business. She also told police she had been shipping money to her family in Korea to repay a $30,000 loan from family members to open the spa.

Bravo said they found three young women in the spa who said they had been smuggled into the United States from China, through Mexico. He said the women claimed they were working in the spa to pay off the $40,000 it cost them to come to this country.

Bravo said Paek told him the young women were paid a small fraction of the money taken in for massages.

For a 30-minute massage Bravo said the masseuse got $7, while Paek took $43.

"To run this illegal prostitution operation, Paek utilized illegal aliens who pay to be smuggled into the United States and then, in essence, become indentured slaves to the people who smuggle them into the U.S.," Bravo said.

This goes on alot more than people realize. The Russian mob has done and still does the same thing. They get women here and they have to pay off their debt of being brought here. Then often times to do so quicker they will have a woman contact friends back home and convince them to come here. They also get young ladies who are freed from orphanges as they are no longer children but unfortnately they are vulnerable and therefore easy targets.
What is sickening is that men go to those places and pay for sex with them. It is definitely not tha same as someone who becomes a prostitute because they wanted to.
Unfortunately this is similar to drug dealing. As long as there is a demand and money to be made they will continue to do so.

They always sound like the Korean prostitutes are forced to do the jobs.
But that is not true.
Prostitution was a major industry in Korea.
5% of their GDP was Prostitution(2001).
The Korean government banned prostitution in 2004 then the bunch of Korean prostitutes went overseas.
They are not slaves.

Korean prostitutes rally for the prostitution rights.

South Korean prostitutes rally against sex trade crackdown

SEOUL (AFP) - About 2,800 prostitutes wearing face masks and sunglasses to shield their identities marched on parliament to protest at a police crackdown on South Korea's sex trade.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.p ... 07/2070129

Wearing baseball caps and masks to conceal their identities, sex workers stage a rally to protest against the new anti-prostitution law in Pyongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Oct. 11. Many brothel owners and prostitutes have recently held demonstrations to call for measures to protect their livelihood and even legalize their profession. AP-Yonhap

3,000 Sex Workers Protest Threat to Livelihood

The protesters started shouting such slogans as "rights for our life" and "recognize our profession."
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db ... p?idx=1087