Young women who answered ads in a Korean newspaper for nail salon attendants were roped into a sex trafficking scheme by a Queens woman, according to Suffolk County officials.
The woman, Jin Hua Cui of Flushing, is now being charged with sex trafficking, promoting prostitution, and conspiracy for coercing young Korean women into prostitution through intimidation and threat of violence, District Attorney Thomas Spota announced Tuesday.
“The victims were picked up daily in Flushing by the driver, co-defendant Sangyel Kuen of Flushing, and transported to massage parlors in Hicksville and Huntington Station,” said Spota.
Officials seized $20,000 in cash, business records, passports, and boxes of condoms from Cui’s home in Flushing. The 44-year-old’s co-defendant, Kuen, 53, pleaded guilty at his arraignment June 22 to promoting prostitution in the third degree.
Spota said the customers paid $60 to $80, sometimes more, for sex and, “The house took that money and the women were left with whatever cash tip they were paid.”
Cui is being held at the Suffolk County jail under a $10,000 cash bail.
“New York State’s human trafficking law, enacted in 2007, was designed to fight the scourge of modern day slavery and enable law enforcement and service providers to help victims who are virtually hiding in plain sight,” said Sean. M. Byrne, acting commissioner of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
