FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          CR
MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1996                             (202) 616-2765
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


   TWO THAI NATIONALS SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS FOR ENSLAVING MORE
     THAN 80 FEMALE LABORERS IN A CALIFORNIA GARMENT FACTORY


     WASHINGTON, D.C. --  Two Thai brothers who recruited more than
80 female laborers from Thailand, kept them imprisoned for up to
seven years, and forced them to work in a makeshift garment factory
near Los Angeles, were sentenced today to six years in prison, the
Justice Department announced.  The two were also ordered to pay
$4.5 million in restitution to the workers they enslaved.
     "These are among the largest sentences ever imposed in a
modern slavery case," said Assistant Attorney General for Civil
Rights Deval L. Patrick.  
     U.S. Attorney Nora Manella in Los Angeles noted "they are
nearly twice as high as normally provided for under federal
sentencing guidelines."  
     U.S. District Court Judge Audrey B. Collins sentenced the two,
Wirachai and Phanasak Manasurangkun, after they pleaded guilty two
months ago to violating federal criminal civil rights laws.  Their
mother, Suni Manasurangkun, another brother, Surachai
Manasurangkun, and three other defendants who also pleaded guilty
will be sentenced in May.
     In February, the three brothers, their mother, and three other
defendants, pleaded guilty to running an El Monte garment business
from 1989 until 1995 with a captive work force of impoverished Thai
women whom they recruited in Thailand.
     In their guilty pleas, the defendants admitted that as their
operation grew they imposed increasingly harsh conditions on the
laborers to prevent them from escaping.  Eventually, they
surrounded the El Monte compound with razor wire and a spiked
fence, and barricaded the doors and windows of the workers'
quarters.  To further prevent escape, they hired two full-time
guards, who also pleaded guilty last February.
     The defendants acknowledged making threats against the workers
and their families if they tried to escape, cutting off their
contact with the outside world, censoring their mail and monitoring
their phone calls to keep them from getting help.      Under the
February plea agreement, Suni Manasurangkun faces seven years in
prison.  Surachai Manasurangkun, the third brother, and Sunthon
Rawangchaison, a guard, face six years in prison, while Rampha
Satthaprasit could get four years.  A seventh defendant, Seri
Kanchakphairi, faces a two year prison term. 
     The arrangement was made possible when Rawangchaison,
Satthaprasit and the Manasurangkun family agreed not to oppose a
government request that the judge depart upward from the federal
sentencing guidelines.  
     "The U.S. Attorneys Office and the Civil Rights Division could
not have succeeded without the cooperation of the INS, FBI and the
Department of Labor," said Patrick.
     Manella noted that this was the third federal civil rights
case successfully prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office in the
past few weeks.  Others included the beating of a Cuban alien and
an assault on an Hispanic male in a public park.
     The case was investigated by the INS, the FBI and the U.S.
Department of Labor.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael J. Gennaco
and Thomas D. Warren, and Steven M. Dettelbach, a Trial Attorney in
the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division, prosecuted the
case.
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