REDLIGHT: Four Teens Rescued From Local Hotel - Wyndham, Marriott, Pentagon Official Face Trafficking Charges
Three years in the making, large hotel chains face accountability while Red Roof escapes.
RedLight series is InfiniteEye’s spotlight on human trafficking and exploitation -primarily through the internet, but, as many things become, reflected in reality.
48 charges were laid against two men and a 17-year-old youth in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada last month. The suspects were charged on Oct. 12 following a lengthy investigation in which ALERT (Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team) revealed evidence of underage victims.
ALERT began investigating with Edmonton police on a missing persons case involving a 13-year-old girl. The investigation led to a hotel in south Edmonton where police discovered the missing individual along with two other underage girls. Police believe the teens were recruited and groomed to work in the sex trade and were being sexually exploited at a local hotel.
“They were all known to the girls they were trafficking. They befriended them through social circles, as well as social media, a lot of this occurred or was facilitated by SnapChat,” said Staff Sgt. Chris Hayes, ALERT Human Trafficking. “Social media helped facilitate this, it was a way for the accused to get in touch with the girls.”
Parents are encouraged to use stricter oversight regarding underage internet usage, even after attempting to restrict usage, monitoring internet traffic is still necessary. Many victims fall prey to this lifestyle unawarely, through someone they know and through slow influence on their decision making process.
This incident is only the most recent in a saga impacting more and more families daily.
In a recent sting in Georgia, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) announced the arrests of 26 people, including Stephen Hovanic, former chief of staff for the Americas Division of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).
64-year-old Havonic found himself with a misdemeanour in Georgia, after he allegedly solicited sex in a motel room with an undercover agent.
A two-day operation commenced between November 15 and 16, resulting in the rescue of six human-trafficking victims, who have since been “moved to safety,” the Haralson County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) in Georgia posted on X on Thursday.
“A total of 26 arrests were made, 12 for prostitution, 10 for pandering, and four for pimping. Three of the individuals are currently under investigation for human trafficking and drug charges,” HCSO said.
Also, meanwhile in Georgia, trial is set to commence for four Jane Does against Wyndham, Marriot, Red Roof, and parent company Varahi LLC for facilitating trafficking out of their establishments. Varahi, an Asian American company, released its CEO quietly in 2020, one year after charges were laid. On November 27, 2023, three days ago at time of writing and days before trial, charges against Varahi were dropped.
Videos have been circulating on social media of hidden “trap doors” and false walls leading to tunnels outside of the hotels. These have not been checked as false up to this point.
According to the case: Red Roof Defendants argue that, as legal entities rather than persons, they were mere instrumentalities, or victims, of the racketeering and cannot be held liable under RICO. Specifically, they argue that a corporation may only face RICO liability if it is a party to or involved in its employee-perpetrator's commission of the predicate crimes. This corporation-agent concept comes from O.C.G.A. § 16-2-22(a)(2) which, in relevant part, provides that a corporation may face criminal liability only if its board or a manager “authorized, requested, commanded, performed, or recklessly tolerated” the crime.
One survivor with the moniker Anastasia, told The New Yorker and the Investigative Reporting Program how her trafficker, a drug dealer by the name of Fredrick Brown, cycled her through hotels in four different states along the East Coast over roughly six months.
Mostly, though, she said she was kept at a Howard Johnson hotel in Pennsylvania, where the general manager, Faizal Bhimani, offered rooms to Brown in exchange for sex with Anastasia and others. At times, including when the police were in the area, Bhimani referred Brown to the nearby Pocono Plaza Inn, which shared an owner, according to The New Yorker article. Years after Anastasia escaped the situation, she cooperated with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation. She and seven other women testified they had been forced to sell sex at the Howard Johnson. Both Bhimani and the company that owned the two hotels were convicted of aiding and abetting sex trafficking.
“This was open and notorious,” a federal prosecutor said at trial, according to Yeung. “This was obvious, and this was constant.”
Anastasia is currently preparing with a lawyer to file a separate lawsuit against Wyndham Hotels, Howard Johnson’s parent corporation.
Wyndham cut ties with the franchised hotel where Anastasia was trafficked the same year as the trial. In a written statement, Wyndham said it condemns human trafficking and could not comment on litigation.
Another Jane Doe, as defendant, has now been entitled to discovery against Wyndham.
The first sex-trafficking case lodged against an individual hotel came in 2015. Since then, more than 110 sex-trafficking lawsuits have been filed against hotel franchisers, according to data the article cited from the Human Trafficking Legal Center.
According to a recent Polaris Survivor Survey, more than sixty per cent of sex-trafficking victims said that they were forced to sell sex from hotels.
Hotels are encouraged to train both staff and guests on recognizing signs trafficking.
Stay tuned for ongoing updates in the Marriott trial.