FBI arrests 2 in alleged sex case in American Samoa
Associated Press
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa » Police have arrested two people accused of luring two Chinese women to American Samoa, trapping them in a karaoke bar and forcing them into prostitution.
The women claim they paid $2,000 to travel to the U.S. territory to get jobs as cashiers at a grocery store, but instead they were imprisoned in a karaoke bar and made to have sex with customers, according to an FBI affidavit by Special Agent Jason Cherry.
After six months the victims eventually escaped by climbing down a rope from the third-story balcony of the Bao Kai Karaoke Bar, according to the FBI.
Fu Shen Kuo, 39, and Shenji Wang, 35, were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Honolulu. They are being held without bail at the federal detention center in Honolulu, said Pamela Tamashiro, Wang's attorney.
The women told police they were recruited around Jan. 26 to work in American Samoa. But once they arrived in March, Wang threatened to beat them if they did not have sex with her 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.
One victim told the FBI she was forced to have various forms of sex with between 60 and 70 customers during the six months she was held.
CORRECTION
Saturday, October 14, 2006
» Police in American Samoa arrested two people accused of luring two Chinese women to the territory, trapping them in a karaoke bar and forcing them into prostitution. A headline on Page A8 last Saturday incorrectly said the arrests happened in Samoa (formerly Western Samoa).
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