Human trafficking

(Thursday, June 23rd, 2005)

The Justice Department today announced the sentencing of the ringleader in the Department’s largest ever human trafficking prosecution. Kil Soo Lee, the former owner of an American Samoa garment factory was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in holding over 200 victims in forced servitude.

“Human trafficking is a moral evil that is nothing less than modern-day slavery,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “Today’s sentencing concludes the largest human trafficking case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice and is another example of our commitment to protect the civil rights of trafficking victims. The Department of Justice will continue to pursue and prosecute all those who attempt to profit from human suffering.”

Lee, the owner of the Daewoosa garment factory, was convicted on February 21, 2003 of numerous federal criminal violations, including involuntary servitude, extortion and money laundering. Lee was charged in 2001, in the U.S. District Court in Hawaii, with illegally confining and using as forced labor over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese garment workers.

The workers were recruited from China and from state-owned labor export companies in Vietnam. They paid fees of approximately $5,000 to $8,000 to gain employment at the Daewoosa factory and risked retaliation and punishment at home if deported back to their native lands. Lee and his henchmen preyed on this vulnerability, and subjected the laborers to poor conditions and minimal pay. In March of 1999, after months of mistreatment, the workers complained about their plight and attempted to obtain food from local residents. Lee and his henchmen retaliated, using arrests, deportations, food deprivation and brutal physical beatings to force workers to operate the Daewoosa factory. In one episode, a woman was beaten so badly that she lost an eye. This abuse continued through November of 2000.

Kil Soo Lee was the third and last individual convicted in this case. In 2002, two of Kil Soo Lee’s co-conspirators, a manager and a garment worker, pleaded guilty to trafficking charges and were sentenced to 70 months and 51 months, respectively, in January 2004.

“Motivated by greed and with no regard for human dignity, these traffickers exploited more than 200 Vietnamese and Chinese workers,” said Bradley J. Schlozman, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is firmly committed to ensuring that those who traffic in human lives are aggressively investigated, swiftly prosecuted and firmly punished. Today’s sentencing sends a clear message to those who would attempt to profit at the expense of another’s freedom.”

This case was prosecuted by attorneys from the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and was investigated by the Honolulu regional office of the FBI. The victim witness coordinator in the U.S. Attorney’s Office also assisted with the case.

(source: Department of Justice of Washington D.C.)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DObzMVNq-HE

Vocabulary

ringleader: "cabecilla"
slavery: owning slaves
garment: clothing
laundering: "colada, lavado"
fee: "tarifa" "pago"
to prey on: (a person) victimize
plight: bad situation
to convict: "condenar"
to punish: penalty for offence
prosecute: "procesar"
witness: "testigo"

Summary



On June, 2005 was announced Kil Soo Lee's sentence: 40 years in prison. Kil Soo Lee was the boss of a garment factory called Daewoosa. This factory is located in American Samoa, a territory in the Pacific Ocean that belongs to United States. Kil Soo Lee received an important order from J.C Penny (a chain of stores really important in America) and this order was supposed to be complete in only two months. As a consequence, he had lots of workers from Vietnam, China and Samoa working in poor conditions: if the workers complained, they were punished with lack of food, pshysical abuse, detainment or deportation.

Although he had already been investigated in 1991, it wasn't until the plant was ordered by a Samoan court to be taken over by a receiver in 2001 that the FBI arrested Lee for involuntary servitude and forced labor. He was escorted to the District of Hawaii. His sentence on October, 2002 included 480 months in prison, over $ 1,500,000 in restituation payments and $1,400 in court fines.


Nowadays, twelve of those workers are now living in Washington State. The sentence was bittersweet for them because a Microsoft Corp. employee helped many garment workers move to the continental United States and have better lives.


David Enseñat, Cinthia Vargas and Marina Orfila