A prostitution ring operating in the city and suburbs exploited Korean immigrants by forcing them to work ’round-the-clock shifts as prostitutes, and swapped women from state to state to keep customers coming back, a federal jury heard yesterday.
Five brothel owners “raked in thousands of dollars each week . . . off the sexual labor of these women,” using stores disguised as massage parlors in Midtown, Queens, Waterbury, Conn., and Washington, D.C., Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig said.
“These women were shipped, stocked, rotated around to meet their customers’ demands,” Honig said in opening statements. “[The brothels] needed and wanted turnover. They needed to have different women there to keep the customers happy.”
The prostitutes often lived at the stores, sometimes remaining inside the buildings for a week at a time, and were required to have sex with up to 10 men in an 18-hour shift, the prosecutor said.
Defense lawyers argued that the businesses were, in fact ,massage parlors and the owners had no connection with each other or any idea that sex was going on.