2 sweatshop accomplices
admit guilt; woman
pleads not guilty

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

Two men pleaded guilty and a woman pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring with the owner of an American Samoa garment factory to enslave Vietnamese workers between March 1999 and January 2001.

Sialava'a Fagaima and Elekana Nu'uuli Ioane pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to denying the workers of their right to be free from involuntary servitude.

Ioane, a former manager at the factory, admitted he directed Samoan workers to beat Vietnamese laborers.

Fagaima admitted to attacking Vietnamese workers for not working or not following orders -- at the direction of owner Kil Soo Lee and Ioane. In one instance, Fagaima said, he intentionally attacked a Vietnamese worker with a pipe, "putting out her eye."

The worker, who called herself Cindy, was among dozens who later left American Samoa for Hawaii looking for work after the plant was closed.

The government charged Daewoosa Samoa Inc. factory owner Lee and assistants Virginia Solia'i and Robert Ati Malala in a 22-count indictment Thursday with conspiring to hold up to 250 Vietnamese and Chinese workers in involuntary servitude. Charges against Lee also include extortion, money laundering, making false statements on a bank loan application and attempting to bribe a bank official. Lee was previously charged with two counts of indentured servitude and is in custody.

Solia'i surrendered to the FBI in Honolulu yesterday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. A bail hearing is set for Sept. 4. An arrest warrant has been issued for Malala.