A man has been charged with extorting Northern Virginia business owners over the past three years, forcing them to pay money and threatening to call authorities about illegal-immigrant employees, according to court records.
Je Hyung Yoo, 29, was charged in federal court in Alexandria with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats or violence. From summer 2009 to March 2012, he and others extorted money from Annandale-area businesses, according to a criminal complaint.
Extortion victims told investigators that they had been physically beaten and intimidated into paying Yoo and others thousands of dollars during that time.
An attorney for Yoo declined to comment. Yoo came to the United States from South Korea in 1993 and illegally overstayed his visa, court documents say.
As of Friday, no one else appears to have been charged in the case.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations special agent who interviewed Yoo in February and in May wrote in the criminal complaint that Yoo admitted to being part of the extortion organization, used his English-language skills to act as an interpreter in the scheme and was an “enforcer” for the organization. Yoo said the extortion group generally targeted business owners who were in the United States illegally or engaged in other illegal activity.
One man who said he operates an unlicensed taxi service told authorities that he was forced to make monthly extortion payments of $500. When he missed several payments, Yoo and others kicked and punched him in the face, arms and legs, court documents say.
Another man who said he operated a “doumi” company — which provides companions to customers at businesses like karaoke clubs and bars — reported that members of the extortion organization told him he needed to pay money to run a business in Annandale. The group also threatened to tell “immigration” about illegal-immigrant workers at the doumi business unless the owner paid, according to court documents.
And a former restaurant owner told investigators that he initially refused to pay, but Yoo and another man came to his restaurant carrying a metal baton and threatened him.
“Come on. You have to pay,” Yoo told the restaurant owner, according to the complaint. “You know what will happen if you don’t pay.”
