Man gets 40 years for enslaving factory staff

Associated Press

A former garment factory owner convicted of enslaving, starving and beating his workers in American Samoa yesterday was sentenced to 40 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution.

In the biggest human trafficking case in U.S. history, Kil Soo Lee was convicted more than two years ago of conspiracy, extortion, money laundering and eleven counts of involuntary servitude at Daewoosa Samoa Ltd. The factory made clothes for J.C. Penny and other retailers before it was closed.

Against the advice of his lawyer, Lee, a South Korean, spoke before the sentencing in Honolulu, claiming he was innocent and that the evidence against him was fake.

"It's quite unbelievably unfair," Lee, 52, said in Korean through an interpreter.

Lee's attorney, Earle Partington, said he is filing an appeal. The trial should have gone before the High Court of American Samoa, he said.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway imposed the maximum sentences, calling the crimes Lee committed "horrible."