ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Taesan Won, 37, a citizen of South Korea who resides in Fairfax, Va., pleaded guilty today to harboring illegal aliens for private financial gain. 

            Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and John P. Torres, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington, D.C., made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge James C. Cacheris. 

            Won was arrested on May 2, 2011.  Won faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 2, 2011.

            In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Won admitted that since October 2010 he operated a “doumi” business in Fairfax known as “Honey.”  Won’s business provided outcall companionship service to male customers at Annandale businesses such as karaoke clubs and bars.  “Doumi girls” generally work for a doumi company that employs multiple women and usually wait in apartments at night to receive a call for work.  When a customer at a Korean business desires to have a female companion, that customer (or the business) will call a doumi company and request that the company send doumi girls to that business.  Once at the business, the doumi girls sing and dance, flirt with, entertain and pour drinks for the customer.  Many of these women were illegal aliens, and Won admitted that knew that this was the case.

            Won admitted that he recruited Korean women who were illegal aliens to work for Honey as “doumi” women.  Won solicited women to work for Honey by posting Korean-language advertisements on various Korean message boards on the Internet, which included the defendant’s telephone number.  Other employees learned about Honey through word of mouth.

            Won harbored some of the doumi women at his residence in Fairfax, where they each paid him $300 per month in rent. He and another co-conspirator also established a “sook-so” or “housing dormitory” located in the Lafayette Forest Community of Annandale, Va., to house the doumi women who worked for him and the co-conspirator. These women paid the co-conspirator approximately $100 per week in rent.

            This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Special Assistant United States Attorney Michael J. Frank is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.

 

 

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