Photo Courtesy of Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Peace
“Human beings are not property, and the victims in this case, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be free from violence and coerced sexual activity,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Peace said.
By Forum Staff
A 20-count indictment was unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn variously charging Siyang Chen, Siyu Chen, also known as “Ban Ban,” Bo Jiang, Meizhen Song, also known as “Die Die,” Rong Rong Xu, also known as “Eleanor,” Jiarun Yan, also known as “Raymond Yan” and “Mike,” Jilong Yu, Carlos Cury and Zerong Tang with racketeering, sex trafficking, Hobbs Act robbery, and violent assaults. The operation was based in Queens but carried out crimes throughout the United States, including in Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Texas and Washington.
As set forth in court filings, between April 2019 and September 2021, the defendants participated in a violent and organized racketeering enterprise, which operated a lucrative prostitution business throughout the United States. The enterprise recruited women, most of whom were from China and lacked legal status in the U.S., to engage in prostitution for the enterprise. The victims were sometimes required to provide copies of their identification documents so that the defendants could maintain even more control over them. The enterprise arranged for the women to travel from New York to locations throughout the country, stay in hotels and enterprise-operated apartments for weeks at a time and engage in commercial sex. Members and associates of the organization collected money from the women and the organization then used those illicit proceeds to promote its sex trafficking and interstate prostitution activities — and enrich its members.
As alleged, between Jan. 8, 2020 and Sept. 1, 2021, members and associates of the enterprise directed and conducted more than 15 violent assaults of women across five states. The victims were Chinese women who the organization believed were providing commercial sex services on their own or for rival organizations. By committing these violent assaults, members of the organization sought to enforce discipline and believed their conduct would not be prosecuted because the victims were not U.S. citizens and were engaged in commercial sex work. Specifically, members and associates of the enterprise would direct individuals to pretend to be johns to gain access to their hotel rooms and, once inside, would restrain the women with zip-ties, beat them with hammers, bats and other blunt objects, and rob them. Members of the organization often encouraged increasingly severe beatings of the victims if the initial attack did not sufficiently injure them. In one phone message that was recovered by law enforcement, a member instructed the enforcer: “Beat [her] to death tomorrow. If she dares fight back, beat her more viciously. Get some results from the beating. Can’t waste the money.”
In another recovered chat, a member advised, “One person choke her by her throat, the other person strike her four limbs to death. Definitely don’t make a sound. Beat her to the point where she can’t fight back.”
“As alleged, the defendants targeted vulnerable women for sex trafficking, and brutally assaulted the victims to enforce loyalty to the criminal enterprise. Human beings are not property, and the victims in this case, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be free from violence and coerced sexual activity. It is our hope that today’s arrests will bring them some measure of justice for the horror that they have endured,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
