United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

CLUB OWNER SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS
FOR FORCING WOMEN TO WORK
AS HOSTESSES IN HIS NIGHTCLUB

A Korean businessman who required Korean women to work at his club in Dallas, Texas, to pay off smuggling debts he had paid for them, was sentenced today in federal court, announced United States Attorney Richard B. Roper. Sung Bum Chang, a Korean American man that owned and operated the nightclub “Club Wa,” was sentenced by the Honorable Sam A. Lindsay, United States District Judge, to 10 years imprisonment and ordered to pay $37,000 restitution to the victims of his crime. Chang pled guilty in June to one count of forced labor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1589 and one count of conspiracy to commit forced labor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.

"Today's sentence should resonate loud and clear throughout our immigrant community. We, in law enforcement, will continue to aggressively pursue those who exploit and prey on vulnerable immigrants who come to America's shores seeking a better life, " said U.S. Attorney Roper. Mr. Roper continued, "I am grateful to the Attorney General for choosing the Dallas-For Worth area to receive $1.35 million in federal grant funding so that we may continue to enhance our human trafficking programs by identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking and apprehending and prosecuting those engaged in trafficking offenses."

“The Changs have demonstrated the depravity common in human smugglers and human traffickers,” said John Chakwin, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Dallas. “They have shown that human slavery is an ugly crime not just relegated to the pages of history. It exists in the 21st Century, and in the cities and suburbs of America. Our ICE agents are committed to bringing such criminals to justice. I hope Changs’ victims receive some solace with today’s sentencing, which end a long ICE and law enforcement cooperative investigation.” Chakwin heads an area which includes north Texas, and the State of Oklahoma

Sung Bum Chang admitted that from December 2004 to April 26, 2005, he conspired with others to willfully hold club workers in a condition of forced labor at his karaoke bar, Club Wa, on Walnut Hill Lane in Dallas. Sung Bum Chang used a smuggling network that recruited young women inn South Korea with promises of good jobs in the United States. Sung Bum Chang paid the victims’ smuggling debts, took the womens’s passports and told them they could not leave until they had paid off their debts to him. Chang forced the victims to live in the upper floor of his home, where he restrained their freedom by monitoring them inside the home with interior surveillance cameras and by positing a Club Wa employee at the front door of the home as a guard. He fined them for violating his “rules of behavior.”

Sung Bum Chang admitted he directed the women to work as club hostesses for six to seven days a week, requiring the women to sit with customers and otherwise entertain them so that the customers would buy more liquor from Club Wa. He maintained records regarding the victims’ earnings and the payment of their debt and charged the women varying amounts for food and lodging, with those amounts being added to their overall debt to him.

One victim escaped the Chang home by leaping from a second-story bathroom window and fleeing with the help of a local pastor, who later reported the case to local authorities.

On April 26, 2005, law enforcement executed search warrants on Chang’s residence and business. Chang was arrested and six undocumented Korean women were found in his residence. Chang was released on bond and the undocumented women have either been returned to their homeland or remain in the United States seeking immigration status.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Coppell and Dallas Police Departments for their investigative efforts. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña

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