Bribes, undercover agents and ‘happy rubs’ landed SC massage parlor owner in jail
Earlier this week federal prosecutors released new details illustrating how an Horry County woman owned and operated illegal massage parlors in North Carolina where officials say prostitution took place.
The woman, Ok Hwa Lee, ran a similar operation in Horry County that shut down following a controversial countywide investigation in 2019. A new criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina details how six women, some from Horry County, others from Flushing, New York, ran eight massage parlors and paid more than $30,000 in bribes.
Officials said Lee, Shanyu Song, JinHua Piao, XueJin Bai and Ming Ji Cao conspired to pay bribes to a police officer — posing as a corrupt law enforcement officer — to receive protection for the operation of illegal massage parlors in Cary, North Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, where sex acts were offered.
Xiang Yue Jin, who was charged separately, is accused of bribing an officer in hopes they would protect her massage parlor, where sex acts were being offered, according to court documents. She is charged with bribery and operating an illegal prostitution enterprise in interstate commerce. A separate criminal complaint stated Jin ran two parlors in North Carolina.
Investigators did not comment on why Jin was charged separately.
Lee: a ‘leader and manager’
In a criminal complaint filed this month, investigators detail how Lee ran six massage parlors where women, mostly of Chinese and Korean descent, were recruited and paid for sex acts. The women were usually recruited from New York and other cities.
Beginning in August 2020 and continuing until May 2021, Lee and her associates paid an undercover agent from the Department of Homeland security just over $15,000 under the impression they were bribing a corrupt cop for protection.
On August 11, 2020, Lee met with the agent and told him she owned four parlors in North Carolina where sex acts took place. She told the agent she owned two parlors in Wilmington, one in Cary and another in Durham and she would pay him $400 a month for protection for each location. She gave him $1,600 that day.
That same day the agent met with Cao, who said she owned two parlors and shared a third with Lee. The agent explained they could both get into trouble if Cao gave him a bribe. She said she understood and gave him $1,000.
In October 2020, while meeting Lee and Song for a payment, the agent toured the New Happy Spa located at 115 S.W. Maynard Road in Cary, North Carolina. During the meeting, Lee again told the agent about the sex acts that go on in the parlor. She also told the agent how she pays someone else to put the business under a different name, “indicating her awareness that illegal activity occurs there,” court documents stated.
In February 2021, Lee transferred two of her parlors, VIP Spa and Comfort Asian Massage, both in Wilmington, to Bai. She told the agent Bai would be expecting him to stop by and collect his bribe. Lee also transferred two parlors to Piao, who received the New Happy Spa in Cary and SuperRelax Chinese Spa in Durham.
In April, Lee described how she recruits Chinese and Korean women for her parlors while discussing possibly opening another business. She told the agent she places advertisements in Chinese and Korean newspapers and that most the women come from New York City.
Later that month, Homeland Security agents and Cary police officers surveilled the New Happy Spa and made traffic stops on the clients coming in and out of the parlor. Three men testified that they had engaged in sex acts with women in the spa. Another man said a woman began to touch him sexually and he “jerked his body away in surprise.” A fifth man told agents there was no sexual contact made during his massage.
In May, Homeland Security agents and officers from the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office conducted a similar procedure, this time at the four spas — VIP Spa, Comfort Asian Massage, Yucca Treatment Spa and King Spa — all located in Wilmington.
Fourteen customers were interviewed, half of whom admitted to engaging in sex acts with the women working. One of those seven said he was a regular at the spa and knew the owners, Lee and Bai. He was leaving VIP Spa, located at 6786 Market St., in Wilmington, when he was pulled over. He told investigators Lee had once offered him $700 a month to put the spa under his name. He declined.
‘I’ll protect you — you protect me’
A separate criminal complaint filed this month details a similar investigation into Xiang Yue Jin, who owns two massage parlors in North Carolina.
The investigation worked the same way, with an undercover agent acting as a corrupt agent who would accept bribes in return for protection against law enforcement. Jin would pay the agent $2,000 a month to keep local law enforcement away from the spas. The agent told Jin “I’ll protect you — you protect me,” during their first exchange, court documents state.
Over nine months, Jin gave the agent $18,000 in cash bribe payments.
Jin wanted the agent to invest in a massage parlor with her and use “American names” to bring less scrutiny from law enforcement, investigators found. She also asked him to do more checks on competing businesses in Cary, hoping attention from law enforcement would scare away the current owners, allowing Jin to buy the businesses at a lower price.
When asked about the sex acts performed by the women in her shop, Jin told the agent they only did sexual acts that did not involve penetration, and some were considered to be “happy rubs.” She also told him that she does not hire young, pretty girls and instead recruits women between 35 and 45 years old.
Agents with Homeland Security and local law enforcement pulled over clients of the Studio Salon in Cary and the Lucky Foot and Body Massage in Wilmington as they left the spas.
Nine of the 11 men they stopped admitted to engaging in sex acts with employees at the spas.
Arrests made
Lee, Song, Bai and Cao were arrested on June 16, according to federal court records. Lee and Song told investigators they lived in North Myrtle Beach, but it is unclear if that is where they were arrested as arrest warrants have not been made public. Jin was also arrested on June 16, in New York.
Lee, Song and Cao were given a Korean interpreter by the court. Bai was granted a Mandarin interpreter.
Horry County vs. Federal investigation
The investigation and subsequent arrests stand in contrast to a 2019 investigation into dozens of similar massage parlors in Horry County.
That investigation, which featured a private investigator paying to participate in sex acts with the employees, led to the solicitor filing civil nuisance orders against more than 20 spas, including at least one previously owned by Lee.
Law enforcement experts and victim advocates have been critical of the investigation in Horry County, in part, because there was certain evidence suggesting many of these businesses were promoting human trafficking, and the lack of criminal charges meant the businesses could simply move and continue harming potential victims.
Jane Anderson, a former prosecutor in Miami and current attorney advisor for AEquitas, a nonprofit aimed at improving prosecution practices related to human trafficking, said these latest arrests demonstrate the failure of the “whack-a-mole” approach employed by Horry law enforcement, as an owner can just move their business and employees after being closed.
Anderson noted that bribery charges are a new wrinkle that she hasn’t previously seen when investigating these types of businesses, referred to as illicit massage businesses, but the charges relating to operating an illegal prostitution enterprise in interstate commerce are common.
That charge, criminalized under the federal Mann Act don’t require evidence of force, fraud or coercion that would be necessary to pursue human trafficking charges, Anderson said. She added that prosecuting these types of businesses for trafficking, even if they suspect that it’s occurring, are difficult because of law enforcement’s struggles to build rapport with the potential victims, often due to the language barrier and cultural distrust of police.
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 6:59 AM.
