May 13, 2008 6:59 pm US/Mountain
Restaurant Owners Accused Of Human Trafficking
DENVER (AP/CBS4) ―
The owners of a sushi restaurant were arrested Tuesday for allegedly treating two of their Korean immigrant workers as indentured servants and withholding over $100,000 in wages.
Young Jo Kwon, 43, and his wife, Jessie Kwon, 41, were charged with five counts of theft and forging of tax and labor documents following an investigation by the Colorado attorney general's office and the FBI's Civil Rights Program, said Nate Strauch, a spokesman for Attorney General John Suthers.
The Kwons, owners of Sushi Moon in Greenwood Village, were released after each posted $10,000 in bond. Trent Trani, a lawyer at the firm representing them, declined comment.
"They were using threats and intimidation and forcing them essentially to be employed at this restaurant against their will," said Matthew McPhillips of the FBI.
"FBI is wrong," said Shin Kim, a restaurant employee. "They're not modern day slaves. these owners are best I've worked for."
Kim is the manager of the Sushi Moon and said he and other employees are always paid on time and that the Kwons are good owners.
The Kwons are the former owners of Osaka Sushi. While there, they're accused of forcing Jaihee Jo Hong and Jong Chul Choi to work without pay by threatening to have their families deported.
Jaihee Jo Hong was allegedly deprived of over more than $19,000 in overtime between 2000 and 2005 while John Chul Choi allegedly lost more than $90,000 in unpaid wages over four years.
According to the arrest affidavit, Jaihee Jo Hong, her husband and two sons came to the United States legally in July 2001 on visitors visas. She was hired by the Kwons with the promise they would sponsor her and her family so they could get green cards.
Investigators found that Jaihee Jo Hong was only paid for 40 of the 70-plus hours she worked each week and that she was paid less than the salary listed on forms submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor.
According to the affidavit, Jaihee Jo provided investigators with information about Jong Chul Choi. Choi, who worked as a chef and owned a restaurant in South Korea, said he was hired to be a sushi chef but did maintenance and construction work for the Kwons. The labor department and Colorado revenue department had no record of Choi being paid at all and estimated his back wage earnings to be $90,042.60 between 2001 and 2005.
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