Updated at 3:23 p.m., Saturday, May 12, 2007
Man admits forcing Chinese women into prostitution
Associated Press
HONOLULU — A man accused of luring women from China to American Samoa and forcing them to become prostitutes in the U.S. territory pleaded guilty in federal court.Fu Shen Kuo, 39, who had been held here without bail after being indicted last October, is to be sentenced Oct. 15.
Kuo conspired with others from 1998 until last October to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate the women, Wan J. Kim, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, said in a document filed Thursday in U.S. District Court here.
Two of the women had claimed they paid $2,000 to travel to the U.S. territory to get jobs as cashiers at a grocery store, but instead were imprisoned in a karaoke bar and made to have sex with customers, according to an FBI affidavit by Special Agent Jason S. Cherry.
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 women told police they were recruited in January 2006 to work in American Samoa, but once they arrived in March, co-defendant Shenji Wang, 35, threatened to beat them if they didn't have sex with customers.
Wang told one of the victims that her family's arms and legs would be cut off if she attempted to escape, according to the affidavit.
The two women told officials of their plight Aug. 30 after they flagged down a police car, and finally got out of the bar by climbing through a window.
American Samoa is located about 2,300 miles south of Hawai'i.
