Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro says this week’s indictment and arrests of the alleged owners and an employee of a Pawaa massage parlor is part of his department’s latest effort to crack down on prostitution by going after the people who profit from it, instead of prostitutes.
Kaneshiro says Rickey Lee Shankles, 52, and Katherine Luo, 54, own Go Go Spa at 1507 S. King St. and that Katchina Moore, 41, is an employee. All three were indicted and arrested Wednesday on state racketeering charges for their association with a business involved in prostitution.
The indictment and arrests were the culmination of a joint operation involving the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, the Honolulu Police Department and the investigations arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The federal investigation is ongoing, said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Joanna Ip.
Kaneshiro said the case started when a prostitute who worked at Go Go Spa decided to cooperate with authorities following her arrest for prostitution in January. He said investigators from the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs confirmed the prostitute’s information.
Go Go Spa isn’t the first massage business that Kaneshiro has gone after using the state racketeering law.
An Oahu grand jury indicted Lu Liu and Fangchao Liu on racketeering charges in May. Kaneshiro says prostitutes who worked at Empire Relaxation, 436 Ena Road, and are cooperating with law enforcement identified Fangchao Liu, 32, as the owner of the business and Lu Liu, 35, as the manager.
A previous grand jury indicted Biyu Situ, 47, and Wei Li on racketeering charges following a raid on Mayflower Massage in June 2015. Situ is the registered owner of Mayflower, which had been operating in Century Center. Kaneshiro said Situ identified Li as the person who brought women from China to work as prostitutes in U.S. massage parlors.
“Our initial investigation indicates, for example, that the defendants in (the Go Go Spa) case likely used immigration fraud to bring women to Honolulu to work at these establishments,” Ip said.
Kaneshiro said other cooperating prostitutes say they first went to work in New York before coming to Honolulu. He said prostitutes who cooperate don’t get prosecuted.
“We’re not targeting prostitutes. We’re targeting people who profit from prostitution,” Kaneshiro said.
The Situ indictment last year came after Kaneshiro refused to prosecute prostitutes whom police had arrested for sexual assault and his vocal opposition to a new state sex trafficking law, which was enacted this year. Kaneshiro said the three racketeering cases have nothing to do with the new law but instead rely on laws that were already on the books.
