On 15 February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested two men for subjecting four Ukranian women to forced labor. Officials suspect that two of the women were recruited to be waitresses, but upon arrival last May were forced to perform as exotic dancers at the Michigan strip club. The other two women were strippers in the Ukraine and were brought to the US with their husbands in September. Two men, one a US citizen and one a citizen of Lithuania, were arrested for forcing the women "to work 12 hours per day, six days a week to pay off $12,000 in travel expenses and another $10,000 for identification documentation. The men took all of the money the women were paid by customers of the club as payment for these “expenses.” The women were driven to and from work at the "Cheetah's" strip club. They were not given a telephone and they were allegedly "intimidated, hit and threatened with death." The two that arrived in September "had not seen or spoken to their husbands since."
Compiled from: "ICE Nabs Two Michigan Men for Human Trafficking Scam." Inside ICE: Volume 2, Issue 5. (last modified 2/28/05)