Several Huntsville-area massage parlors are barred from operating after state law enforcement uncovered evidence that the businesses were actually “fronts for a human-trafficking operation,” the Alabama Attorney General announced today.
Attorney General Steve Marshall’s Office is investigating TY Green’s Massage Therapy, Inc., a company that operates massage parlors in Huntsville, Madison and Decatur. The businesses are owned by Yuping Tang and managed by her daughter Jiao Liu, Marshall said in a news release. The following locations of the businesses are barred from operating pending further legal action:
· Health Massage (Huntsville)
· Massage Foot Care (Huntsville, Madison and Decatur)
The attorney general’s office is suing the massage therapy company in what prosecutors say in the first civil action taken under Alabama’s human-trafficking laws. Prosecutors are also alleging the company violated Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
“…evidence collected during this investigation has revealed that the Defendants are running illicit massage businesses that serve as fronts for a human-trafficking operation,” Marshall said.
The businesses made millions of dollars while the ‘employees’ worked “incredibly long hours during which at least some of them are expected to engage in sex acts with the businesses’ customers,” according to the AG’s office. “When the victims are not ‘working,’ they seem to have little freedom of movement, they are transported in groups to and from the Defendants’ businesses and are kept in houses owned by the Defendants where they are left to eat and sleep in terrible conditions.”
A Madison County Circuit judge granted a temporary restraining order against the parlors, Marshall said in a press release. The company’s assets are frozen pending further court action.
Further details weren’t immediately available. Court records haven’t yet been made public in the case. It’s unclear whether the massage parlor owner and manager have attorneys.
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