Severe punishments have been handed down to business owners, including Korean Americans, who operated illegal massage parlor prostitution in California and Arizona.
Peter Griffin, 79, a former vice detective, attorney, and private investigator, owned and operated five businesses in California and Arizona between 2013 and 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Griffin was sentenced on October 13 to 33 months in prison, while three other defendants who managed Griffin’s businesses were each sentenced to six months in custody.
Three of Griffin’s co-defendants are Kyung Sook Hernandez (59), Yu Hong Tan (57), and Yoo Jin Ott (46)
According to court documents and admissions in plea agreements, the defendants owned and operated “Genie Oriental Spa,” “Felicita Spa,” “Blue Green Spa,” “Maple Spa,” and “Massage W Spa,” located in the greater San Diego area and in Tempe, Arizona, between 2013 and August 2022.
The criminal scheme included incorporating their businesses with state agencies, managing the businesses’ illicit proceeds, advertising commercial sexual services online, employing women to perform commercial sex services in the businesses, and benefiting financially from the illegal enterprises.
According to the DOJ, they primarily recruited immigrants from South Korea and China who were restricted from working and did not speak English, and allegedly pressured and expected the employees to perform commercial sex services inside the businesses.
In fact, one of the defendants instructed her to “leave [her] morals in China” in order to “make the customers happy.”
The defendants leased multiple commercial properties as storefronts, leased and bought residential properties to use as housing for employees, and secured credit card processing equipment to facilitate the illegal businesses. Griffin oversaw nearly every aspect of the illicit businesses, making himself indispensable to their operation, and assumed the role of “boss.”
BY HOONSIK WOO [woo.hoonsik@koreadaily.com]
