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Acquitted businessman arrested in PH for alleged online prostitution
Takayuki Umeda, a Japanese businessman who was acquitted on Saipan in 2005 on charges of employing illegal aliens and exploiting a minor exotic dancer, was arrested with six other persons in the Philippines on Monday for alleged human trafficking.
According to news reports in Manila, Philippine authorities arrested three Japanese nationals, including Umeda, and four Filipinos, during a raid on an English learning school in Pangasinan, which reportedly was used as a front for an online dating service for foreigners.
The raiding team reportedly seized from the Kame Hachi Corp. various equipment such as six laptops, 55 units of desktops, and 44 sets of CPUs that were used by the group in their operation.
The learning center’s female Filipino employees were allegedly used to entice older Japanese men to go to the country for sex in exchange for money.
In May 2005, a CNMI Superior Court jury acquitted Umeda and Club Micronesia of all 18 charges. The court also dismissed two counts of unlawful exploitation against Umeda and the nightclub.
The charges included employment of an illegal alien, harboring of an illegal alien, immigration fraud, solicitation, conspiracy, and aiding, abetting and encouraging illegal entry.
Then assistant attorney general Eric O’Malley stated that Club Micronesia employed at least one underage girl from June to July 2004 and let her “engage in prohibited conduct.”
O’Malley said the defendants facilitated the girl’s entry from Manila to Saipan using forged documents.
