Queens couple plead guilty to keeping children as slaves

Sook Yeong Park and Jeong Taek Lee held two Korean kids as slaves in their home for several years.



This week in New York, a Flushing couple admitted to holding two Korean children as slaves in their home for several years, forcing them to work long hours and withholding contact with their parents.

Couple Who Kept Korean Teens as 'Slaves' at Flushing Home Plead Guilty

50-year-old Sook Yeong Park pleaded guilty to two counts of labor trafficking. Park was sentenced to six months in prison followed by five years probation, after taking a plea deal. The 60-count indictment against her included grand larceny, forcible touching and assault for her treatment of the two children. Her husband, 54-year-old Jeong Taek Lee, was sentenced to five years probation.

The two victims, a 9-year-old brother and 11-year-old sister from Korea, were brought to stay with the couple in January 2010. Shortly afterwards, Park confiscated their passports and effectively enslaved them.

Oklahoma bed-and-breakfast accused of human trafficking

Owners of the Whispering Pines Inn allegedly held a Cambodian woman as an indentured servant.



In Oklahoma, the owners of a bed-and-breakfast are under federal investigation for allegedly keeping a Cambodian woman as an indentured servant after paying for her passing to the United States.

Norman inn being investigated after report of Cambodian woman held as indentured servant

Last week, FBI agents raided the Whispering Pines Inn in Norman after claims surfaced that they were keeping an employee as an indentured servant. Investigators say the owners, Rany and Thavory Kchao, payed $8,000 for the woman to come to the United States from Cambodia, and in return she would work off her debt.

The woman reportedly worked as a housekeeper at the Whispering Pines Inn for the past two years, working 14 to 15 hour days, seven days a week, and never received a paycheck. The Kchaos did not let her have access to her immigration documents and did not allow her to leave the grounds of the inn on her own.

Queens woman kept Korean kids as slaves for six years

42-year-old Sook Yeong Park is accused of abusing and enslaving two children in her house since 2010.



This is horrific. In Queens, a woman is accused of keeping two Korean children in her house as slaves for more than five years, forcing them to do housework and give her massages, manicures and pedicures, beating them and making them sleep on the floor, while cutting off all communication with their parents.

Queens Woman Allegedly Kept Two Korean Children As Slaves

42-year-old Sook Yeong Park is charged with labor trafficking, third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. According to the district attorney, Park brought a 10-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother to the United States in 2010, confiscated their passports and effectively enslaved them.

Restaurant owner arrested for enslaving cook

Pradeep Kumar is accused of enslaving and abusing an Indian restaurant worker for three years.



Damn. Been hearing way too many stories like this lately... In Southern California, a restaurant owner has been arrested for allegedly enslaving an Indian employee and holding him in servitude for several years.

Valencia restaurant owner accused of slavery, beating employee

47-year-old Pradeep Kumar was arrested this week on suspicion of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, human trafficking and holding a person in involuntary servitude. Police say the victim, an unnamed 55-year-old Indian national, endured three years of slavery and physical abuse.

The victim was lured to the United States in 2012 to work as a chef at Tandoori Grill in Valencia. But Kumar confiscated his passport, barred him from contact with the outside world, and forced the cook to work seven days a week, about 12 to 14 hours each day without pay. When he made mistakes, Kumar would beat him.

Houston psychiatrist charged in human trafficking scheme

Four men are accused of luring dancers from India and forcing them into prostitution

A Houston psychiatrist and three men in New York are accused of human trafficking after luring several dancers from India with the promise of legal jobs, then forcing them into the sex trade once they arrived.

Houston doctor accused of luring Indian dancers to US in sex trafficking scheme

Riyaz Mazcuri, Rashmikant "Sam" Patel, Sabja Khimani and Mehmood Hassanali Dhanani were charged with forfeiture (forced labor conspiracy), visa fraud conspiracy and fraud in procuring foreign labor.

According to a federal indictment, the men hired female dancers in India and brought them to the United States under the false pretense that they would perform Indian cultural programs. Instead, when they arrived, the women were forced to dance in night clubs in Houston and New York for 12 to 14 hours per night, seven nights a week, and some were pressured into prostitution.

Wealthy couple sued for holding domestic workers as slaves

Lured from Indonesia, victims seek damages for years of exploitation and abuse


This week in Los Angeles, three Indonesian women filed a lawsuit alleging that a wealthy businessman and his family fraudulently lured them to the United States to serve as domestic workers and then essentially held them for years as slaves, subjecting them to unlawful and inhumane working conditions and abuse.

Arrested for Human Trafficking, Wealthy Local Couple Sued for Holding Three Domestic Workers as Modern-Day Slaves

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that businessman Hendra Anwar and his wife Astati Halim forced the victims to perform grueling manual labor, denied them fair compensation, withheld their passports and used threats and other psychological abuse to prevent the women from escaping.

Husband-and-wife-run brothel busted in South San Francisco

Busted. Last week in South San Francisco, authorities arrested a man who was allegedly running a brothel with his wife out of their apartment, which investigators believe may be part of a much larger international sex trafficking operation: Busted South SF brothel may be part of larger sex ring.

49-year-old Zhi Liu was arrested on human trafficking, pandering, and pimping charges. He and his wife Wie Guo, who remains at large, are accused of running a brothel, rotating young women from Boston, New York China, in and out of an unassuming apartment just across from the South San Francisco BART station.