BELCHERTOWN — A Sunderland couple accused of sex trafficking were ordered held on $500,000 bail Thursday after denying charges that they were running a human trafficking and prostitution ring through Massachusetts massage businesses.
Speaking through Mandarin interpreters, Feng Ling Liu, 50, and her husband Jian Song, 48, both of Sunderland, denied the charges in Eastern Hampshire District Court Thursday.
Liu and Song were arrested Tuesday along with Liu’s daughter, 26-year-old Ting Ting Yin of Hyde Park, N.H., and Shuzi Li, 52, of West Springfield.
The four are accused of transporting people from New York and trafficking them for commercial sex in “massage parlors” in communities including Northampton, Hadley, Framingham, East Longmeadow and Agawam.
Liu and Song were charged with illicit activities at Hadley Massage Therapy, Feng Shui Healthy Spa in East Longmeadow and Massage Body Work in Framingham.
During the course of the investigation, Attorney General Maura Healey said authorities developed evidence indicating that Li and Liu were the leaders of two separate but similar operations, running profitable and organized criminal enterprises through massage businesses that had been set up as fronts for human trafficking. The defendants allegedly offered sexual activity between women and buyers in exchange for a fee.
Both Liu and Song are charged with offenses including trafficking of a person for sexual servitude, prostitution, money laundering, possessing or transporting monetary instruments and conspiracy.
The investigation into the massage businesses began in spring 2016. The shops had been reviewed on a website where customers commented that they could receive sexual favors for an additional fee of $40 to $60, according to court documents.
During the period of July to November 2016 police would periodically stop male customers and question them about their experiences inside the shops, according to court documents.
Some of the men confirmed they would pay not only for a massage but also sexual contact.
Investigators also observed Liu and Song bring food and supplies into the business as well as transport workers to and from the location, authorities said.
According to investigators, the women who worked at the shop appeared to also live there and were rarely seen outside of the building.
Through evidence obtained from trash discarded at the couple’s home, investigators learned that in July 2016, Feng Shui Healthy Spa serviced 237 clients and took in $23,000, according to court documents.
“The customers interviewed during this investigation indicated that the tip paid to workers was always in exchange for sexual acts performed,” according to court documents.
When investigators searched the couple’s Sunderland home, Jeremy Bucci, chief trial counsel at the Northwestern district attorney’s office, said police found $22,000 in cash as well as ledgers which revealed the couple made around $300,000 a year.
The couple is also alleged to have transported Asian women from Flushing, N.Y., and sometimes China to work, according to Bucci.
Song’s attorney, Colin Keefe, filed a motion for funds up to $1,000 to hire a private investigator as there were 40 witnesses who may be called to testify, according to court documents.
The motion was allowed.
The pair is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 18, unless indictments are handed down from a grand jury.
“It’s our hope certainly that people recognize how serious of an impact this has on the victims of human trafficking,” Bucci said outside of the courtroom.
Bucci declined to comment on details relating to the victims, but said the allegations were of “manual stimulation of male clients.”
In prosecuting the case, Bucci hoped to send a message that his office was willing to fight for the victims, he said.
“Our hope is that it will assure that the case will proceed and the defendants will appear,” Bucci said.
If released, Liu and Song must surrender their passports, sign a waiver of rendition, submit to GPS monitoring and stay away from the three massage shops.