Assistant U.S. Attorney William Shipley in Honolulu told the federal court on Monday that Iona Uiagalelei, acting director of the territorial government's Office of Property Management, has asked for counsel to represent him in pre-indictment plea negotiations.

Four co-defendants — Fu Shen Kuo, his wife Kueiling Chen, Lili Zhang and Shengji Wang — are to be sentenced later this year after pleading guilty.

All four were accused of luring Chinese women into the territory to work in a prostitution operation inside a three-story building.

Chen had said in a court affidavit filed in April that Uiagalelei's company, I & L Uiagalelei Corp., was basically a front for the brothel.

Uiagalelei had denied the allegation, saying the business provides food and other supplies to Chinese fishing boats, and that Kuo served as its general manager.

Two of the Chinese women claimed they paid $2,000 to travel to American Samoa to get jobs as cashiers at a grocery store, but instead were imprisoned in a karaoke bar and made to have sex with customers, the FBI said earlier.

After six months, the women escaped by climbing down a rope from the third-story balcony of the Bao Kai Karaoke Bar, according to the FBI.

The prostitution ring operated from 1998 until last October, officials said.