The Rise & Fall of a Dallas Madam

The Dallas Morning News reports this week on the arrest of Kyong "Jackie" Roberts who:

came to America as the Korean bride of a U.S. serviceman more than 20 years ago and climbed from dress shop owner to modeling studio proprietor to queen of Asian brothels.

Her Dallas-based brothel businesses have been raided and millions of dollars in cash, cars and real estate have been seized by law enforcement officials.

Roberts and three others are to stand trial for charges including human trafficking, aggravted promotion of prostitution, money laundering, organized crime and shipping large amounts of cash out of the US and into Korea.

The arrests of Roberts and other brothel-oweners have provided a glimpse into the seedy underworld of sex trafficking into the United States:

In late 2004, ICE agents and Dallas vice officers found an informant with accurate, inside knowledge of how women were recruited in Korea to work in Dallas brothels.

For fees averaging $15,000 apiece, smugglers flew the women to Canada and Mexico, then walked them over the border into the U.S.

Brothel owners operating as massage parlors, spas, baths, saunas, modeling studios or nightclubs assumed the women's smuggling debts, often taking their passports as a guarantee that they would be paid back.

In March 2005, the ICE informant reported that Sung Bum Chang and his wife, Hyang, ran such an operation out of Club Wa on Walnut Hill Lane.

According to court records, women were provided as "party guests for businessmen and other individuals," with private party rooms at $100 a girl. Sex was not guaranteed. ICE agent Darrell Stanley explained in an affidavit that a 67-year-old madam negotiated further favors with customers.

"Chang obtains his illegal Korean females by contacting a man known as `David' . . . who acts as a broker for the transportation and illegal entry," Stanley wrote.

By April, a search of the Changs' home in Coppell netted a half-dozen illegal immigrants living in the second-story bedrooms, $10,000 in cash and two cars. Many of the women confirmed what the informant said.

Chang and his wife were charged in federal court with forced labor and other charges related to human trafficking. They pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. Their lawyers have declined requests for interviews.

This article is part 2 of a 2-part series by Tim Wyatt for the Dallas Morning News. Read part one of the article--"Capitalists or Sex Slaves?" here.