St. Martin spa owner set for trial in sex-trafficking case

GULFPORT -- A human-trafficking trial has been set for a woman accused of operating a spa as a front for sex slaves in Jackson County and of laundering money to conceal the nature of her business.

Yeon Sook "Jackie" Hwang, 41, of Biloxi, ran a massage parlor in a strip mall on North Washington Avenue in the St. Martin community.

A pretrial conference is set for April 21 in U.S. District Court. Her trial is set for May 9 before Judge Sul Ozerden. Hwang has until April 25 to notify the court of her intent to accept a plea agreement.

Hwang, a Korean national, operated JJ Spa And Massage until authorities shut it down last fall. The women she allegedly forced into sex labor also were Korean nationals.

Hwang was denied bond in December after Ozerden heard an FBI agent testify while an interpreter translated for Hwang. She speaks little English.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell and District Attorney Tony Lawrence obtained a court order to shut it down in November following a year-long investigation they said was based on ongoing complaints.

Investigators have said they seized client lists with phone numbers and sex-related items in a raid of the business.

A federal grand jury indicted Hwang on Oct. 6 on charges of human trafficking and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and four counts of money laundering. The indictment was unsealed about two weeks later Hwang's arrest following a raid of the spa.

Hwang is accused of bringing women from California, Georgia, New York, Colorado, North Carolina and Texas to work and live as sex slaves, the indictment said.

She also is accused of making a total of $33,560 in cash deposits to conceal the nature of her business, the source of money, the spa's ownership and control of the women. The indictment lists four cash deposits she allegedly made from June 24, 2013, through Nov. 25, 2013.

An FBI agent has testified $924,000 passed through Hwang's hands within two years. He also said as many as 50 women had worked there in a five-month period. The agent said the spa had ordered 9,000 condoms over a two-year period, 1,000 condoms in each case.

Authorities have said four women were living at the business when authorities raided the spa, and they had not been allowed to leave and food and water were brought in for them. They were taken to an undisclosed location.

Authorities have said Hwang's workers were all under age 30 and spoke very little English.

The spa also reportedly offered massages without a state license.

Investigators had found posts about the spa on a website that included the type of sex acts available, the cash-only prices, according to a Jackson County investigator's affidavit. Some posts allegedly mentioned the types of sex people were having with spa employees.

Court documents indicate crimes at the massage parlor began in August 2012.

Margaret Baker, Sun Herald staff writer, contributed to this report.Hear authorities talk about human trafficking and see related picturesnote>

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 3:34 PM with the headline "St. Martin spa owner set for trial in sex-trafficking case ."