A five-month probe has resulted in the arrests of four Japanese models and four other people in a case involving whether an Internet service based here smuggled the Japanese models to pose nude for its live video chat rooms.
Immigration and Naturalization Service district director Don Radcliffe tells the Honolulu Star-Bulletin says the operation in the Kamehameha Heights area involved "a lot of money changing hands," with figures ranging from $20,000 to $40,000 a week, and involved the models conducting live nude video chat sessions.
The alleged mastermind of the operation, Akira Sekimoto, president of Aloha Data, Inc., and his vice president, Takao Ono, were indicted last Thursday for conspiring to smuggle aliens into the U.S., the newspaper says. The felony indictment also names Sean Nakayama and Shihoko Sakamoto. Sakamoto has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face trial March 14 in the case.
The four models - Kaori Ishino, Akemi Hosono, Yukako Abe, and Misaki Natsuhori - are charged with using false or misleading information to enter the U.S., the Star-Bulletin says. They were put on probation and freed on $100 bond apiece.
The INS says in an affidavit eighteen women were brought in for work as nude Internet models since last June, with this said to have been Ishino's third such trip. Most of the models, the affidavit says, worked a week or two and then returned to Japan.
In a printed e-mail message recovered from trash last August, the affidavit obtained by the Star-Bulletin says a co-conspirator who was not present in court yesterday noted to a woman model here: "Have as much fun as you can. As long as you do your job, it must be the best place. If you have a chance, go again."
The case began last summer when a source tipped off the INS that Japanese women were in the U.S. posing nude for the Internet. The Web address directsex.com was recovered from the trash last November, and investigators purchased two hours' time on the site on Dec. 7 - with the chat conducted entirely in Japanese.
