By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa
Variety News Staff

A FEDERAL jury is now deliberating in the case involving the manager of a karaoke club on trial for conspiracy, prostitution and fraud.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson gave instructions to the jury yesterday afternoon after the federal government and the defense concluded their final arguments at 11:45 a.m.
U.S. Attorney Jared Fishman said the defendant, Sun Wei Qin, should be found guilty of the charges because the evidence shows that she intended to hire the victim and then force her into prostitution on Saipan.
Fishman said the evidence shows that the Phoenix Karaoke Club in Chalan Kanoa was a house of prostitution and there is clear evidence that the defendant brought the 35-year-old victim to Saipan to be a prostitute.
Fishman said the defendant is guilty of conspiracy because she conspired with other persons and she used another company, the Saite Development Corp., and forged documents to bring the victim to Saipan.
He said the defendant lied to the victim and did not tell her the nature of the job because Sun knew that Phoenix Karaoke could not bring workers to Saipan.
Fishman said the victim came to Saipan because Sun led her to believe that she would have a job opportunity here.
The victim was made to believe that by working here all her family’s dreams and her own would come true.
Fishman said the victim and her husband gave up all their savings and even sold their only means of making a living, a taxicab, to pay Sun the money required to come to Saipan to work.
He said Sun turned that dream into a nightmare when the victim found out that she would be working as a prostitute.
Fishman said the defendant used her friendship with the victim to “deceive her — to use the victim’s body to make money, to become rich.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric O’Malley said the victim will be forever damaged by Sun’s “heartless actions.”
O’Malley said the victim was trapped and the defendant set this trap by telling lies.
Sun’s lawyer Joseph Camacho said the victim came to Saipan for a job and is a scheming woman “who moved to plan B when her plan A didn’t work out.”
Camacho said the victim came here, hoping to get benefits once the CNMI’s immigration system was federalized.
He said when the victim heard that she could not get what she wanted, she turned to plan B which was to talk to different people and look for other opportunities.
Camacho said victims of human trafficking and prostitution usually get special privileges from the government which includes “nice jobs” and a relocation to the U.S.
Camacho said the victim in this case is no different from “the other supposed victims.”
The victim who arrived here on March 2, 2007, testified earlier that the defendant told her she would be working as a cleaner.
The victim said that when she found out that she would be a prostitute instead, she asked the defendant to give her the airfare so she could return to China.
The victim said “she asked the defendant three times, begging her to let her go home and just forget the money that she paid to her for her travel and documents, but the defendant ignored her and refused to give her a ticket.”
The defendant was indicted for conspiracy to commit foreign transportation for prostitution and foreign transportation of a person in execution of a fraud scheme, coercion and enticement for prostitution and foreign transportation of persons in execution of a fraud scheme.