Source

Justin Eric King (Beau of the Fifth Column) was the head of the local operation of a multinational human trafficking & forced labor business called Eurohouse.

His business found vulnerable young women in Eastern Europe and promised them seasonal work at a hotel in Florida for 6 months to 1 year. King forged visas for this purpose, telling the women that they would be working at one single hotel as a direct employee. They were charged $2000 for this. When they arrived, they instead found out that they would be working as contractors for King’s branch of Eurohouse at many different hotels. So King defrauded them, misleading them into believing they would work directly for one company, then rented them out as contractors for his own profit. In doing so, he made them complicit in immigration fraud, which is a serious federal crime. None of the victims had any idea that their visas were invalid.

They were made to live in cramped apartments with 15-20 other workers, which they were also forced to pay rent for.

The “they were undocumented refugees smuggled across the border” excuse is obviously bunk as they WERE documented and they each only stayed in the US for 6 months to 1 year. Every victim arrived with a return ticket that they fully intended to use. A key part of the operation’s success was the use of temporary workers, as they would choose to just go home rather than complain to the police.

Victim testimony, along with other physical evidence entered into the record such as contracts and payslips, show that:

• King was intimately involved in the operation. Not only did he defraud these women by lying to them about the nature of their visas & their work, but he was the one who was responsible for contracting them out to hotels and victims place him as their most intimate contact.

• King imposed debts on them and then garnished payment from their wages. For example he charged one victim $1200 for a $200 visa renewal and then garnished $350 per week from her weekly pay of $600 (earned over 78 hours of work) to pay it back

• King split up their payslips to avoid paying them overtime. He made one victim work for 80 hours in one week and told her it was normal to do this so she didn’t complain.

• The operation was profitable specifically due to its ability to exploit forced labor, as they were able to contract workers out for less than minimum wage.

• The victims were routinely threatened to keep them working & quiet. These threats were of physical violence and deportation.

• King made millions off this operation and today still owns two of the properties that he bought with the money, worth a total of $1.5 million

Sources:

Florida University’s Centre for the Advancement of Human Rights report on the case based on the evidence put onto the record during it.

Direct victim testimony which includes lots of physical evidence entered into the record.

Blog post from 2013 which has lots of info on his crimes and who he is. It was written after activists in Florida became suspicious of him for inserting himself into their movements despite having no discernable history of activism.