Virginia man admits to harboring illegal aliens to work as 'doumi girls' for Korean 'Honey' business

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A South Korean national, who resides in Fairfax, Va., pleaded guilty on Tuesday to harboring illegal aliens for private financial gain, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington, D.C.

In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Taesan Won, 37, admitted that since October 2010 he operated a "doumi" business in Fairfax known as "Honey." Won's business provided outcall companionship service to male customers at Annandale businesses such as karaoke clubs and bars. Doumi girls generally work for a doumi company that employs multiple women who usually wait in apartments at night to receive a call for work. When a customer at a Korean business wants a female companion, that customer (or the business) requests the company send doumi girls to that business. Once at the business, the doumi girls sing and dance, flirt with, entertain and pour drinks for the customer. Many of these women were illegal aliens, and Won admitted that knew that this was the case.

Won admitted that he recruited Korean women who were illegal aliens to work for Honey as doumi women. Won solicited women to work for Honey by posting Korean-language advertisements on various Internet Korean message boards, which included the defendant's telephone number. Other employees learned about Honey through word of mouth.

Won harbored some of the doumi women at his residence in Fairfax, where they each paid him $300 per month in rent. He and another co-conspirator also established a "sook-so" or "housing dormitory" located in the Lafayette Forest Community of Annandale, Va., to house the doumi women who worked for him and the co-conspirator. These women paid the co-conspirator about $100 per week in rent.

Won was arrested on May 2. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 2.

For more information, visit www.ice.gov.