Maryland man pleads guilty to harboring South Korean women

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The owner and operator of a Korean "doumi" business, which provided female escorts to customers at nightclubs in Annandale, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit alien harboring, following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) case.

Youn Sok Chang, also known as "Michael Chang," 35, of Gambrills, Md., faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment when he is sentenced July 26. Chang also agreed to forfeit $144,000.

Chang admitted that since at least December 2010, he has operated a doumi business that provided female companionship to men in Annandale. Chang's doumi business was known at various times as Da Bong, Coco and Romance. Chang hired illegal aliens from South Korea to work as "doumis," and he housed these women in an apartment he rented in Virginia. Various nightclubs in Annandale and Centreville would call Chang and order women for customers. Chang would then transport the women to the various clubs. Generally, customers were charged $70 per hour to converse, dance or sing with the women.

Chang also admitted that he and co-conspirators recruited women from South Korea to serve as doumis, and he transported some of the women from Georgia and New York to Virginia. Chang promised one woman he sought to recruit that she could earn $6,000 per month working for him. Chang and his co-conspirators admitted to harboring at least 27 illegal aliens.

One of Chang's co-conspirators, Taeson Won, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien harboring and was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for his role in the offense.