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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Information, Friday, September 21, 2007
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Washington, D.C. - Yeon Ja Song, 54, also known as Song Youn and Song Yeon, originally from Korea, pled guilty today in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before the Honorable Natalia Combs Greene to one count of operating a house of prostitution, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor. Sentencing for Song is scheduled for November 20, 2007. Song faces a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment.
According to the government’s evidence, between August 2006 and January 2007, Song operated and ran a prostitution brothel in the third floor unit of 1716 I Street, NW, Washington, D.C. The brothel was called “The Oriental Spa.” Song employed up to five women at a time at the brothel to engage in prostitution. All of the women who worked at the brothel are of Korean origin. Most of the women traveled from Flushing, New York, to Washington, D.C. to work at the brothel.
The investigation of The Oriental Spa originated when the FBI received an anonymous tip that women were being forced into prostitution at the location. The FBI passed the information to the Metropolitan Police Department. On December 8, 2007, MPD conducted an undercover operation and executed a search warrant at the location. During the December 8th raid, MPD seized over $12,000 in cash and physical evidence demonstrating that the unit was used as a brothel. The government’s evidence also showed that Song instructed four women to reopen the brothel on the morning of December 10th. Song operated the brothel until early January 2007, when it was finally shut down.
In announcing the plea, the U.S. Attorney notes that the case was the result of the collaborate efforts of the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force. Formed in November 2004, the D.C. Trafficking Task Force has had tremendous success in achieving its wide ranging goals of identifying and servicing trafficking victims and prosecuting human traffickers. The U.S. Attorney commends the outstanding work of MPD detectives Thomas Smith, Lavinia Quigley, and Steven Schwalm, who investigated the case and spent hours interviewing the witnesses in this case and developing the evidence in this case, MPD officers Joseph Abdalla and Michael Iannachione, who assisted with the undercover operation, and special agents with FBI’s Washington Field Office Civil Rights Unit. The U.S. Attorney also thanks individuals at Polaris Project, a non-governmental agency D.C. Trafficking Task Force member who provided invaluable assistance to the witness/victims in this case. Finally, commendation is extended to legal assistant Donice Adams and paralegal Joyce Arthur, who assisted with the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Marcus-Kurn who investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Song who, along with Ms. Marcus-Kurn, prepared the case for trial.