Jury Convicts Woman of Exploiting Thai Workers

A Woodland Hills woman prominent in the Thai community was convicted Thursday on federal charges of involuntary servitude, harboring illegal immigrants and using their signatures to fraudulently obtain credit cards.

Supawan Veerapol, 53, was taken away in handcuffs after the jury found her guilty on 11 of 13 criminal charges involving her treatment of Thai immigrants who worked at her home and at two restaurants she operated in the San Fernando Valley.

Veerapol, described by prosecutors as the common law wife of Thailand’s ambassador to Sweden, was accused of using her political influence to bring women workers into the United States, forcing them to work as many as 18 hours a day.

Some victims testified that Veerapol confiscated their passports, censored their mail, restricted their contact with the outside world and threatened harm to their families in Thailand when they tried to leave.

The jury’s verdict came after a day and a half of deliberations.

“We think this is a just outcome that should send a message that this sort of activity in Los Angeles will be taken seriously,� Assistant U.S. Atty. Jack Weiss said afterward.

Defense attorney W. Anthony Willoughby expressed disappointment with the verdict and promised an appeal.

Willoughby asked U.S. District Judge Carlos Moreno to give Veerapol time to get her affairs in order before ordering her into custody. He said she needed to arrange care for her son, who is nearly 18.

Moreno refused. “I would have serious doubts that she would return for sentencing,� he said as he remanded her into custody on the spot.

Veerapol, who will be sentenced Oct. 18, faces six to eight years in prison, said Weiss, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Atty. Arif Alikhan.

Weiss said Veerapol has overstayed her visa in the United States and will be deported when she is released from prison.

The jury found her guilty on one count of involuntary servitude in connection with her treatment of Nobee Saeieo, 58, who testified through an interpreter that she was forced to work long hours for little pay in the defendant’s home and now-closed Gulf of Siam restaurant.

Saeieo said she was required to crawl on her hands and knees to serve Veerapol’s house guests from the Thai Consulate and other persons of status, a claim denied by the defense.

She said her duties included cleaning the house, washing Veerapol’s Mercedes-Benz and giving her employer manicures and pedicures.

The jury acquitted Veerapol of involuntary servitude charges involving two other women, Thonglim Khamphiranon and Somkhit Yindiphot, who also were brought into the country illegally to work for her.

But the panel convicted Veerapol of harboring all three of the women as illegal immigrants and found her guilty on seven counts of mail fraud for obtaining credit cards in their names and charging bills that were never paid.

Veerapol was arrested last year after two of the women escaped with the help of a sympathetic Thai family who brought them to a Thai community services center. After listening to their accounts, authorities there notified law enforcement officials.