Woman Accused of Enslaving 2 Thais in Valley

The companion of a ranking Thai diplomat was accused in a federal indictment Wednesday of holding two illegal immigrants from Thailand as indentured servants for more than six years at her San Fernando Valley home.

During that time, Supawan “Sonya” Verapol, 52, was said to have forced the immigrants, both women, to work 18 hours a day at her home and restaurant while withholding their wages, denying them urgent medical and dental care, censoring their mail and threatening harm to their families back home if they tried to escape.

Supawan, who lives in Woodland Hills, vehemently denied the charges, saying the two women were her friends who she allowed to stay with her for free, and that she gave them money to shop and presents of gold every New Year’s Day and on their birthdays.

“I gave them gold, money, whatever they needed,” she said. “Not like a salary, not like a worker; it is like a family.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Gennaco, who prosecuted the infamous El Monte sweatshop case, said this case “is potentially El Monte revisited.”

Supawan, identified in a government affidavit as the companion of Thailand’s ambassador to Sweden and connected to other influential Thai officials, was arrested last week and released on $500,000 bond.

A grand jury indictment handed up Wednesday accused her of involuntary servitude, harboring and employing illegal immigrants and using their signatures to obtain fraudulent credit cards.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI entered the case in January after the two women said they decided to flee. The women came to the Thai Community Development Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 18. After listening to their story, social workers there called federal authorities.

Supawan contended that a business rival trying to ruin her offered the women $200,000 each if they would leave and make charges against her. Supawan said the women were lured by the money because they are relatively poor and wanted money to buy property and bring their children from Thailand to the United States.

The business rival, who owns a Thai restaurant in Woodland Hills, denied her accusation in an interview, saying, “I don’t have that kind of money.”

In interviews with INS Agent Philip Bonner, who speaks fluent Thai, the women, Thonglim Khamphiranon, 42, and Somkhit Yindiphot, 58, , gave similar accounts of their experience.

Both said they were smuggled into the United States. Thonglim arrived in 1991, disguised as a member of a group of 30 Thai government tourism officials. Somkhit said she was escorted from Thailand by Supawan, who instructed her to say she was a domestic worker for the Thai ambassador to Kenya if U.S. immigration officials asked questions.

After their arrival, the women said, Supawan seized their passports. Bonner said this was meant to instill fear because in Thailand all citizens are required to produce national identification cards to police whenever requested.

Under Supawan’s control, the two women worked from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week, they told Bonner. Their duties ranged from baby-sitting her children to housecleaning, gardening and washing her Mercedes-Benz.

During the afternoon and evening, both women worked at Supawan’s Thai restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, washing dishes and mopping floors.

At Supawan’s house, Thonglim said, she was made to sleep on the floor during her first year. The women also said that Supawan denied them urgently needed medical and dental care. Thonglim told of having to extract her own molar because Supawan refused to take her to a dentist when she was in intense pain.

Supawan denied that, saying a friend of hers took Thonglim to a dentist.

“I never held them up, in fact, I’m not here all year; they’re the ones who hold the keys to the house; look at my house,” Supawan said, pointing to her well-kept home with its expensive furniture.

“I love her very much, I love her like a sister, I miss her,” Supawan said of Thonglim. They have been friends for 20 years and Thonglim has lived with her on and off for eight years, she said, and Somkhit for four years.

Supawan said she did not like to go out alone, so she and the two women often went shopping together, to restaurants in Chinatown and to Las Vegas.

She said the women never worked long hours and that they were not her employees. She said the women asked her to buy them the baking ingredients so they could make Thai baked goods they sold in Thai markets.

The women left in January, Supawan said, after she told them that she couldn’t afford to look after both of them, that she “only needed one.”

According to authorities, Supawan also ordered them to sign various legal documents. According to Bonner’s affidavit, Supawan used their names to fraudulently obtain credit cards in their names and to disguise her ownership of properties she controlled.

The women say they were also forbidden to read a local Thai newspaper and prevented from attending services at a Buddhist temple.

“To allow the workers to attend such services would jeopardize the ability of the slave master to retain total dominion and control over the workers,” Bonner wrote in a 29-page affidavit.

The women also told authorities they knew of nine other Thai nationals who were smuggled into the United States to work for Supawan.

Supawan is scheduled to be arraigned April 13. If convicted of the charges, she could be imprisoned for up to 11 years.

The U.S. attorney’s office said the INS and FBI investigation is continuing.