Korean Man Pleads Guilty to Illegal Annandale Companionship Business

A Korean man pleaded guilty to using illegal immigrants for a "companionship business," run here in Annandale on Tuesday, June 7, according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and reports from The Washington Post.

Taesan Won, 37, a Fairfax resident originally from South Korea, pleaded guilty to "harboring for private financial gain at least six undocumented Korean women," the Post reported. Won was arrested on May 2, 2011.

According to the press release, Won admitted he operated a business known as “Honey" since October 2010 where customers were taken to several Annandale businesses such as karaoke clubs and bars where they would "sing and dance, flirt with, entertain and pour drinks."

Won admitted to recruiting the illegal Korean women to work for Honey and to soliciting for women to work for him "by posting Korean-language advertisements on various Korean message boards on the Internet, which included the defendant’s telephone number," the release states.

Some of the women were housed in Annandale's Lafayette Forest condominium community just off of Heritage Dr, not far from , where they reportedly paid Won's co-conspirator approximately $100 per week in rent. Other girls lived with Won at his Fairfax residence.

Won will be sentenced later this year on Sept. 2. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Annandale Patch is following up on this story.