Defendant Veerapol, a Thai citizen and the common-law wife of a Thai ambassador to the United States, forced three Thai nationals to work as domestic servants and as workers at defendant’s Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. Beginning sometime prior to 1989, Veerpol recruited the victims from Thailand. Veerpol was able to obtain a passport and a 6-month visitor’s visa for at least one of the victims, N.S., a non-English speaking Thai citizen with a second-grade education, through her husband’s contacts at the Thai embassy.

Once in the United States, the defendant forced the victims to work long hours performing housework and childcare. Defendant opened bank and credit card accounts in the victims’ names, which she used for her own benefit.  The defendant also used threats of legal action, verbal abuse, and physical violence to maintain control over the workers. At one point, the defendant threatened to kill one of the workers if she returned to Thailand.

In addition to confiscating the victims’ passports, the defendant further isolated the women by prohibiting them from using the mail or telephone, and by denying them access to Thai-language newspapers. The victims were not permitted to speak to defendant’s house guests.

The defendant permitted one victim to return to Thailand, after a Thai consular official intervened at the request of the victim’s siblings. The two other workers eventually escaped from the defendant.