Thread: Thai Woman accused of Seattle-area brothel conspiracy

A federal grand jury accused a Thai woman Friday of operating brothels in Kirkland, Bellevue and SeaTac.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Chomphoonut Dongird on Thursday on a charge of conspiracy to transport individuals in furtherance of prostitution. Dongird is accused of arranging sham marriages for the purpose of bringing Asian women to the United States to work for her as prostitutes.

Dongird's and her co-conspirators' goal: "To make substantial sums of money through the recruitment and exploitation of Asian women by causing the women to work in the commercial sex industry," the indictment said.

Dongird ran brothels at 1942 Market St., Kirkland; 16407 Lake Hills Blvd., Bellevue; and 3312 S. 192 St., SeaTac, according to the indictment. To staff the brothels, she is accused of recruiting women in Bangkok, Thailand. On one occasion in 2006, Dongird sent a co-conspirator to Thailand to marry a woman through a sham arrangement so she could gain entrance to the United States, court documents say.

When the woman -- identified only as AF1 -- arrived in Seattle, Dongird told her she owed a debt of about $25,000 for her immigration papers and for travel to the United States, according to the indictment.

A month later, she began working for Dongird "as a masseuse and was required to provide sexual services."

As AF1 paid off her debt to Dongird, she worked at the brothels in Kirkland and Bellevue, the indictment said.

In June 2006, a second woman answered a newspaper ad to work as a masseuse and traveled to Seattle from California, where she, too, performed sexual services for money.

In June 2002, a third woman traveled from Bangkok to Seattle and worked for Dongird as a household servant and prostitute, the indictment says.
ICE agents arrested Dongird at her SeaTac home without incident. She appeared in Magistrate Court on Thursday, but the hearing was postponed because she speaks limited English.

At a magistrate hearing Friday in the presence of an interpreter, Dongird pleaded not guilty to the charge.

"I did not do it," she said quietly in English.

If found guilty, she faces five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. She is a citizen of Thailand and a legal, permanent resident of the United States, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Scoville said.

A magistrate judge ordered her held pending a detention hearing next week.
An ICE spokeswoman would not reveal more details of the alleged brothel ring, saying the case is still under investigation.

Woman accused of Seattle-area brothel conspiracy

A Thai chick who lived a couple of doors down from me in the UK was a 'masseuse'. Funny that.

Sea Tac is a shithole. But Bellvue/Kirkland are quite upscale.

Massage places for the most part are just fronts for PFP.

Thats what I like to see cant keep a good girl down Probably make an example of her because she is foreign.Just considering how man ho,s there are in downtown LA. Mexican pimps, Latino junky ho,s, maybe the Thai bird is better out of it.

Woman gets 4-year sentence in prostitution case
Friday, July 31, 2009

Saying her behavior amounted to slavery, a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday sentenced a Bellevue woman to more than four years in prison for forcing her fellow Thai immigrants into years of grueling work as prostitutes in a trio of massage parlors.

Saying her behavior amounted to slavery, a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday sentenced a Bellevue woman to more than four years in prison for forcing her fellow Thai immigrants into years of grueling work as prostitutes in a trio of massage parlors.

The 51-month term that U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly handed Chomphoonut "Lisa" Dongird was three months longer than prosecutors had sought.

Dongird, 52, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to transport individuals in furtherance of prostitution.

From about 2002 until she was arrested last fall, Dongird, 52, operated three massage parlors: Lisa Thai Massage on Market Street in Kirkland; Natchaya Thai, or the The Royal Spa, on Lake Hills Boulevard in Bellevue; and Miracle Thai Massage in SeaTac.

During that time, she recruited about a half-dozen women in Thailand to come to work for her as masseuses.

At least two of the women were forced to perform sex acts on customers to make extra money, which was garnisheed by Dongird to pay for their immigration, made possible by sham marriages to American men who were paid thousands to pose as their husbands.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ye-Ting Woo said the women were made to work up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for virtually no pay.

And Dongird scared them into staying hidden indoors lest they be discovered by immigration authorities.

seattletimes.nwsource.com

It is my hood and they got what they deserved.

You can take the lady out of the bar, but...

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

You can take the lady out of the bar, but...

So so true

I rather like the idea of Thai massage parlours in the USA. The only thing wrong with this case is that the women were brutalized and exploited. If the industry was legalized and the women protected by US laws, you would have happy masseuses, smiling customers and tax money for increasingly bankrupt local/state/federal governments. Lots of happy endings to brighten up the lives of a somewhat miserable male population. Everybody wins except perhaps American housewives (many of whom deserve this anyway). Better to allow Thai massage girls into the USA with special work visas than Hindu computer programmers and engineers.

Many in Vancouver, too. Some suburbs have banned these businesses, as well as pawn shops and whatever they deem hazardous to the public welfare. Weirdos.

Telling the women once they got here that it cost $25,000 to get them here seems a bit excessive. It cost me about $2,000 a piece to get P.R. visas for my wife and her 3 kids, and that included transportation from C.M. to BKK and lodging in BKK for 1 interview, getting the police certificate that states one has no criminal past/record and meeting with homeland security, along with the costly vaccinations required for young females. It cost around $600-650 to fly one way from BKK to the west coast. I do hope that this cost the job of the person(s) at the state dept. at the BKK embassy who approved the visas. While there are many persons at the embassy that are helpful, particulrly the Thais working there, that doesn't include the pricks that actually approve the visa, whose only concern is that their approval of a visa doesn't come back at a later date to bite them in the *ss. They certainly don't show ANY courtsey to the applicants.

Originally Posted by GooMaiRoo

I rather like the idea of Thai massage parlours in the USA.

Agreed...

Originally Posted by GooMaiRoo

If the industry was legalized and the women protected by US laws

When pigs fly...

That Kirkland location is very close to my house. If only I had known....

(Dongird, 52, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to transport individuals in furtherance of prostitution.) Hopefully, she didn't plead guilty thinking she would get her sentence halfed, like in Thailand.