Feds: Hawaii brothel owner bribed agents for protection
An alleged Hawaii brothel owner tried to bribe federal agents in exchange for protection from raids, help with the U.S. citizenship test and recruitment of prostitutes, Homeland Security investigators said.
A criminal complaint filed Tuesday in federal court accuses Biyu Situ of bribing a Homeland Security Investigations special agent last year. The document says she made the offer in January 2015 after two Chinese women at her Mayflower massage parlor in Honolulu’s Century Center were arrested for prostitution during a joint operation with Honolulu police and Homeland Security Investigations to find potential human trafficking victims.
When two special agents from Homeland Security Investigations arrived to do a follow-up interview with Situ, she allegedly told them she wants the same arrangement her friend’s massage parlor has with a Honolulu law enforcement officer. She said her friend runs a prostitution business and pays an officer who tips her off about any law enforcement activity.
Situ said “it was hard for her to operate her business successfully with so much law enforcement activity,” the complaint said.
The agent turned down the bribe, along with a veiled offer of sex, according to the court document.
A few months later, a confidential informant met with Situ to discuss her new massage parlor called Blue Angel. Situ told the informant she invested $115,000 in the business. During the conversation, Situ allegedly took calls from customers seeking massage and sex appointments. The complaint says she directed callers to Blue Angel at downtown’s Kukui Plaza.
Situ asked the informant about immigration connections and suggested she could pay $10,000 a month or every few months for protection of Blue Angel, the complaint said.
During an undercover sting in June 2015, the agent Situ allegedly propositioned previously met with her to discuss protection for her prostitution business. She wanted the agent “to stop law enforcement raids and inspections on Blue Angel or give her advance warning of law enforcement raids and inspections on Blue Angel,” the complaint said.
She allegedly gave him $5,000 in cash to start, and she promised about $15,000 when her business improved.
When the agent asked if there was anything else he could do for her, she had a few more requests: help obtaining U.S. citizenship without taking a test because she failed it, and recruitment of prostitutes.
She allegedly gave him another $5,000 in cash for the citizenship help and promised $500 to $2,000 for each prostitute he recruited from other massage parlors.
Situ couldn’t be reached for comment today. There was a warrant out for her arrest. A lawyer who represented her in a 2012 prostitution case in state court didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Those charges were dismissed.
25 responses to “Feds: Hawaii brothel owner bribed agents for protection”
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From reading the article, this business women sounds very very busy. Does she live/rent in Kahala?….time to audit her taxes?
She should write a book about her life.
Cash
A brothel at century center? Now there’s a surprise. LOL
gotta try…
I guess it’s easy to mistake Hawaii for an Asian city where the kind of bribery she considered routine is the normal. What is astonishing about this story is that the feds actually did their job. What it says about the state law enforcement folks, well, that’s why it’s so easy to think Hawaii is not different than other Asian places. Good work feds.
Is English not your native language?
Tip of the iceberg. This is one of many.
This type of corruption occurs in ‘Caucasian’ places as well.
Yeah so who’s the other police officer tipping off the other parlor? And getting protection for sex/money.
interesting indeed. Yes, Honolulu does have the appearance of a third world “Asian” city with all the underworld activity and ways of operating we associate with such. But then I think inverse is right as well: Many caucasian cities operate in similar ways. Only Mandans remain our storied purity.
Don’t the Mandans run a casino? If so, what “purity” are you speaking of.
Did Beee Leee use his tax payer funded credit card there?
If this “brothel owner” was smart, she would have kept a log book of all her clients. She then might have a better chance at escaping conviction or getting a lenient sentence.
The list would be too long and Kenoi may have been a repeat visitor.
So what?! If two consenting adults were not bothered like they are we could end the majority of sex trafficking and instead assist people who choose to make money through consensual acts then maybe there would be less homelessness, less college debt, much fewer sex traffickers, and may I dare say more happy people.
Feds, State, police, stay out of our bedrooms or wherever we privately choose to enjoy each other’s company!
Human beings are not perfect. Prostitution serves a real need. What do you think men do in seXual need? All kind of foul play -fouler than prostitution which should be legal and regulated like in Europe.
Not hurting anyone, just a release.
Why is Homeland Security agents investigating prostitutes? I expect HPD to waste taxpayer money investigating this type of victimless crime but why would DHS. You would think they’re focus should be on matters of actual importance such as terrorism.
Re read the article that these prostitution fronts traffic humans and possibly minors from other countries amd force them into prostitution. Forget weed, legalize prostitution in Hawaii and completely regulate it so that crooked cops and others are not profiting and advancing the trafficking of young women in Hawaii for sex. This is the type of activity that makes Hawaii a sick place to live or visit, not legalized same sex marriage.
Quite right. But if you imagined this is mainly a problem here due to Hawaii being a tourist destination, you’d be wrong. The same situation exists in and around our nation’s capital, and pretty much everyplace else it can hide under the radar. And to answer the commenter above, the reason DHS gets involved is because this is going on under the radar, so we have no idea who’s being smuggled in or what other stuff they might get involved in.
They don’t use HPD because they would take the bribe, hello!
“she wants the same arrangement her friend’s massage parlor has with a Honolulu law enforcement officer.”>>> Some more of the Mayor’s “highest standards” personnel at work here, eh?
Sounds Obama to me.
Disgusting that foreigners do criminal activity. Prison time then deport them. No respect and they are visitors. Argh!
“An alleged Hawaii brothel owner tried to bribe federal agents in exchange for protection from raids.” I am not sure what is being alleged. The way the story reads, the thing being alleged is that she owns the brothel. What about the bribe to the federal agents?