Massage operator gets 21-month term for bribing fed

A woman who operated an illegal massage business in Honolulu is going to prison for bribing a federal agent to help her gain citizenship and to protect her business from prostitution raids.

U.S. District Senior Judge Susan Oki Mollway sentenced Biyu Situ to 21 months in prison Tuesday on two counts of bribing a public official. Situ has until Nov. 21 to turn herself in to begin serving her sentence.

Situ, 48, went to trial on the charges in March. A federal jury deliberated just over a day before finding her guilty. Situ had claimed entrapment.

According to the pre-sentence investigation report, Situ was engaged in illegal activity in Hawaii from 2012 to 2015. Honolulu police cited Situ in 2012 for prostitution and for performing massages without a massage therapy license, but the charges were dropped because the state took too long to take her to trial.

Situ is awaiting trial in state court on racketeering charges for allegedly operating a prostitution business. Alen Kaneshiro, her lawyer in that case, says the state was waiting for her sentence in the federal case before deciding whether to continue the prosecution.

Kaneshiro said if Situ is found guilty of the racketeering charges her state sentence would run at the same time as her federal sentence. And Situ, who is a permanent resident, could get deported after she completes her federal prison sentence, said Thomas Otake, her lawyer in the federal case.

Situ was operating Mayflower LLC on the 27th floor of Century Center when ­Honolulu police and federal agents raided the business on Jan. 15, 2015. In a follow-up interview two days later the government says Situ offered a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent money for protection from prostitution raids, which he declined, and even offered the agent and his partner sexual favors, which they also declined.

Five months later, Situ, who had moved her operation downtown and renamed it Blue Angel, gave the same ICE agent $5,000 in cash to protect her business, another $5,000 in cash for help in gaining U.S. citizenship and offered the agent $500 to $2,000 for each girl he recruited for her business.

Otake told Mollway that federal officials investigated but did not bring human trafficking charges against Situ because the women who worked at the businesses said they were there voluntarily.

Situ is the first person charged with racketeering in Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro’s latest effort to crack down on prostitution by going after the people who profit from it, instead of the prostitutes.