The manager and enforcer of a Flushing-based sex trafficking and prostitution ring were convicted on Tuesday by a federal jury in Brooklyn on felony charges, including assault in aid of racketeering and Hobbs Act robbery, following a month-long trial.
The jury found Siyang Chen, 35, of Queens, guilty of sex trafficking conspiracy, several assaults in-aid-of-racketeering, and Hobbs Act conspiracy and convicted Yichu Chen, 22, also of Queens, of the robbery and assault of a sex worker. Siyang Chen has now been convicted on all counts in a superseding indictment with which he was charged. When sentenced, he faces up to life in prison, and Yichu Chen faces up to 20 years in prison.
“The trial evidence provided a behind-the-scenes view of the horrific machinations of a sex trafficking organization in all its inhumanity and violence motivated by greed,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York. “This verdict is a victory for justice and for the victims who were subjected to brutal beatings and degrading treatment at the hands of the defendants.”
As proven at trial, between April 2019 and September 2021, Siyang Chen helped lead a nationwide prostitution business that trafficked women. Members of the organization directed and carried out violent attacks on commercial sex workers to protect the enterprise’s turf and deter the victims from working for rival organizations or independently. Siyang Chen was a manager of the criminal enterprise who advised the organization on strategies to improve profits, including by using violence — and specifically, by targeting and attacking sex workers.
The victims of the organization were subjected to extreme brutality. Evidence admitted at trial demonstrated that members of the ring zip-tied the victims’ hands and viciously beat them with breaker bars, hammers, wrenches, and other blunt objects, leaving the victims bloody, terrified, and, in many cases, seriously injured.
Siyang Chen planned and participated in robberies and assaults in several states. WeChat messages shared among members of the crew graphically depicted the violence that occurred during the assaults. Videos of the attacks were circulated to senior members of the enterprise to show that the beatings were sufficiently severe and to sex workers to cultivate an atmosphere of terror. The videos showed victims screaming and struggling while they were bound, bleeding, and being beaten with hammers and other blunt weapons. Siyang Chen commented in a message about a planned attack: “Beat to the death… at least four fractures…Tell the girl not allowed back will hit again coming back.” He made clear that his message to sex workers was, “F**k off if you don’t want to die.”
Yichu Chen was part of the crew’s “hit team.” Specifically, acting at Siyan Chen’s direction, Yichu Chen was recruited to beat a woman who was engaging in commercial sex work for a rival prostitution ring in Centerville, Virginia. Siyan Chen instructed Yichu Chen how to zip-tie the woman’s wrists behind her back, and, subsequently, Yichu Chen beat her with a metal breaker bar and then robbed the victim of cash and her cell phone. Members of the organization paid Yichu Chen an additional $400 for carrying out the attack, which a member of the organization described as a “super severe” beating.
“My Office will stand by the brave victims who assisted prosecutors and law enforcement in holding the perpetrators accountable,” Peace said.
He expressed his thanks to several law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, ICE, and the FBI.
“For three years, Siyang Chen managed a national sex trafficking operation designed to establish a monopoly over their victimized workers through organized attacks, effected by Yichu Chen, among others, to terrorize potential defectors and competitors,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy said. “This ruthless enterprise ordered brutal assaults with physical restraints and various blunt instruments to maintain its tyrannical control. May this conviction emphasize the FBI’s intolerance of the systemic use of violence and serve as a deterrent to those who employ such horrific measures to increase profits.”
Ten co-defendants charged in the superseding indictment, six of them from Queens, have pleaded guilty to various charges for their roles in the organization, including its boss and Siyang Chen’s wife, Rong Rong Xu, 31, of Queens, and are awaiting sentencing. Four others who committed crimes at the enterprise’s direction have been convicted in related cases or are awaiting sentencing.
Following the guilty verdicts against Siyan Chen and Yichu Chen on Tuesday, NYPD Interim Commissioner Thomas Donlon remembered the victims.
“This verdict delivers a modicum of justice to the courageous survivors who endured unconscionable treatment at the hands of these men, who have now been convicted of operating a brutal interstate sex trafficking and prostitution enterprise,” Donlon said. “The NYPD, along with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, will continue to hold accountable those who seek profit from the abuse and exploitation of others.”
