Woman Sought In High-Dollar Prostitution Case
July 15, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A woman who had $500,000 cash in her house when officers searched it as part of a prostitution raid was considered a fugitive Friday after failing to turn herself in, police said.
Ok Sun Kim, 55, is charged with 11 counts of promoting prostitution and one count of engaging in a pattern of criminal activity. Six other women face similar charges after authorities served search warrants and several of the women's homes and two Columbus-area massage parlors last month.
Columbus police and Franklin County sheriff's deputies made two simultaneous busts June 22 at businesses on Indianola Avenue in Clintonville and on state Route 161 and found a lot of cash.
Police said one of the alleged brothel owners was counting $750,000 in cash when police entered the building. That money is now sitting in an interest-bearing account run by the city. When the case concludes, the money will be distributed between police, the sheriff's office and the prosecutor's office, NBC 4's Nancy Burton reported.
Besides the cash found in Kim's north Columbus home, investigators seized $170,000 from an office near one of the parlors, Columbus Police Sgt. Rick Curry said.
A lawyer for Kim tried to negotiate a deal for Kim to surrender a few days after the searches, but it fell through, Curry said. Kim was arrested July 7 in Fairfax County, Va., posted $5,000 bond and was to have traveled to Columbus with her lawyer to be booked.
Investigators believe Kim and another woman, 57-year-old Chae Sun Leonard of suburban Gahanna, were the group's managers, Curry said. None of the women working at the parlors was being held against her will, but they weren't paid unless they engaged in sex acts with customers, he said.
Curry did not know the name of Kim's lawyer. Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Greg Peterson was out of the office Friday.
July 15, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A woman who had $500,000 cash in her house when officers searched it as part of a prostitution raid was considered a fugitive Friday after failing to turn herself in, police said.
Ok Sun Kim, 55, is charged with 11 counts of promoting prostitution and one count of engaging in a pattern of criminal activity. Six other women face similar charges after authorities served search warrants and several of the women's homes and two Columbus-area massage parlors last month.
Columbus police and Franklin County sheriff's deputies made two simultaneous busts June 22 at businesses on Indianola Avenue in Clintonville and on state Route 161 and found a lot of cash.
Police said one of the alleged brothel owners was counting $750,000 in cash when police entered the building. That money is now sitting in an interest-bearing account run by the city. When the case concludes, the money will be distributed between police, the sheriff's office and the prosecutor's office, NBC 4's Nancy Burton reported.
Besides the cash found in Kim's north Columbus home, investigators seized $170,000 from an office near one of the parlors, Columbus Police Sgt. Rick Curry said.
A lawyer for Kim tried to negotiate a deal for Kim to surrender a few days after the searches, but it fell through, Curry said. Kim was arrested July 7 in Fairfax County, Va., posted $5,000 bond and was to have traveled to Columbus with her lawyer to be booked.
Investigators believe Kim and another woman, 57-year-old Chae Sun Leonard of suburban Gahanna, were the group's managers, Curry said. None of the women working at the parlors was being held against her will, but they weren't paid unless they engaged in sex acts with customers, he said.
Curry did not know the name of Kim's lawyer. Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Greg Peterson was out of the office Friday.