Woman sentenced for her role in international sex trafficking organization
A woman has been sentenced for her role in an international Thai sex trafficking organization, according to United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger.
According to court documents, Sumalee Intarathong, 62, also known as Alice Spencer Warren, was involved with a criminal organization that made money by compelling hundreds of women from Bangkok, Thailand, to engage in commercial sex acts in cities across the United States.
As a visa broker for the organization, Intarathong and her co-conspirators “owned” trafficked victims until they could repay a “bondage debt” of between $40,000 and $60,000. The victims were transported from Thailand to the United States and placed in a prostitution house somewhere in the United States, according to court records.
Court documents indicate members of the criminal organization obtained fraudulent visitor visas and travel documents for the victims. As a part of getting those documents, the organization gathered personal information about the victims and their families in Thailand.
The information was later used to threaten victims who attempted to leave the organization.
One of Intarathong’s victims, who had to engage in “about seven to eleven [sex acts] per day” until she paid off her bondage debt, wrote to the court:
“I am a victim of human trafficking and suffered psychologically because I was afraid that I would be arrested or the traffickers would come hurt or kill me. I was so scared even after the defendants in my case were arrested because I knew them directly. I did not dare go outside and was not able to sleep for a long time.”
As court records indicate, the organization dealt primarily in cash and engaged in money laundering to hide illegal profits. The organization moved tens of millions of dollars of illegal money from the United States to Thailand throughout the course of the conspiracy.
Intarathong was arrested in Belgium in August 2016 and remained in custody until she was extradited to the United States in February 2021. On November 29, 2022, she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
On Monday, Intarathong was sentenced to time served since her arrest in 2016 and $500,000 in restitution to the victims. In addition, Intarathong agreed to be taken from the United States to Belgium or Thailand and will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out the court’s order.