Mass arrest of customer's / based on reviews
Potentially "thousands" of customer's/review writers to be arrested. The initial arrests are of what LE calls the "Filthy Fifty"
The Filthy Fifty customers were from The Review Board (TRB) based on their reviews. This is the first case I have heard of where reviews led to customer's arrests. The Review Board was taken over by LE in January 2016 with 12 moderators, owners and "League" members arrested.
May 13, 2016 - KIRO7 - Reported 50 were arrested for promoting prostitution, a class 2 felony. The video reports they are looking for perhaps thousands more customers to charge, so there will be more arrests, KIRO7 reports.
Six arrested are from Seattle's elite business community. They include a Microsoft Director of Worldwide Health and a former director of Amazon who led their FireTV who was known on the board as "Captain America".
KIRO7 reports police are calling them part of the "Fifthly Fifty," since they were customers of the women "rescued" from the sex trafficking ring of TRB. Using the names "Appy" and "Jaytee," investigators said (Microsoft director) submitted over 70 reviews of prostitutes he had allegedly hired since April 2012. The Amazon director was tied to 29 reviews.
The elite six of the fifty arrested so far include:
Owner of a business that provides technology for public safety and the military who used the name "ItsMe" in reviews.
A Boeing engineer using the aliases "BrokenBoy08" and "Mike Chen".
A dentist who used "PeteLeu" and a manager of a golf supply store known as "Spencer Street."
All six are scheduled to be back in court next month. They all pleaded not guilty and are free on bail, which was set at $75,000 for each.
The sex workers operated out of high-end apartments in Bellevue and were the victims of sex trafficking, according to King County Prosecutor Dan S.
“These defendants, we allege, were absolutely devoted to the commercial sexual exploitation of vulnerable, powerless immigrant women,” (King Cty Prosecutor) said shortly after the initial arrests in January.
Police said the women were forced into prostitution to pay off debts to organized crime bosses in Asia. The women will NOT be charged with any crime. But now their alleged johns are.
Dave notes, the site was very respected and well known for reviews in the Seattle area and it appears all the victims while here illegally, were consenting adults without any coercion.
From the January press conference:
The 12 South Korean women in law-enforcement custody will be offered an unspecified form of "help," officials said at the press conference. They may be able to avoid deportation by applying for special victims' visas if they were subject to human trafficking.
"Veronica", a sexworker that was involved in TRB since inception said at broadly.vice.com that "the site was a cut above the "adult" listings on backpage.com and other escort sites, as it was more carefully moderated and served as a community forum for sex workers and clients. "It was really a wonderful thing that kept everyone safe," she said. "Girls would be in touch with each other. A lot of people used it as a reference system—have you seen this person and are they safe?—for both sex workers and clients."
But at some point, that resource became polluted. "Around four years ago is when all the K-girl stuff (separate site of Korean women) started happening," Veronica said. "Before that, it was almost all independent providers. We spoke on our own behalf, we wrote our own ads, we had our own websites, we decided who we were going to see. And then four years ago, these establishments started showing up. It was sitting funny with everybody."
Certain members of the website, she said, were more obviously enthusiastic about the so-called K-girls than others. "Woodstock organized a lot of the social functions," Veronica said, referring to one man's username. "Sixties, retired." In the police report it says He posted a review saying, "I finally saw my first K-girl," and "I would definitely recommend her and plan to see her again." (Dave notes this may be enough for "promoting prostitution" in many States including Arizona).
The owner of one of the apartments from the initial raid was charged with sex trafficking since he rented to a prostitute and received $100 from the $300 hourly fee to customers.