COLUMBUS – The operator of a chain of massage parlors that employed illegal immigrants as prostitutes faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in federal court.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Hui Li, 46, of 3217 Chesley Court on the Northwest Side, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to interstate travel to promote prostitution and employing illegal immigrants to work in the brothels.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations have said Li was the ringleader of a human-trafficking operation that shuttled Chinese women among several massage parlors. Eleven women were rescued during a raid in January, they said.
A complaint said Li operated the parlors from February 2014 until her arrest in January.
Investigators said the women worked 11 hours a day, seven days a week at places such as Happy Fingers Spa, 5841 Karric Square Dr. on the North Side, Best Asian Massage, 747 Wilson Rd. on the Hilltop, and Happy Fingers Spa/Asian Magic Touch in Cincinnati.
The parlors catered to an average of 15 men a day and Li instructed the women to “make customers happy,” HSI Special Agent Justin Myers told U.S. Magistrate Norah McCann King.
Li posted internet ads promoting the massage parlors and postings on social media indicated that sexual services were available. Towels and paper tissues pulled from the trash at one of the parlors tested positive for semen, according to the criminal complaint.