Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction:
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A Korean woman who was accused of running a prostitution ring to fund illegal operations that included a circuit of private motocross tracks was sentenced here Monday to 18 months in federal prison. Followers of her case, which has dragged on for three years between federal courts in Texas and California, have dubbed her the “Motocross Madam.”
Jong Ock Mao, 50, most recently a resident of West Covina, Calif., was convicted of “conspiring to use interstate commerce to promote prostitution and using brothel proceeds to buy real estate.” She entered a guilty plea to the charges in August. At her sentencing, she was also ordered to forfeit $10 million worth of property, which included the racetracks.
Let no one fault her dedication as a mother, though:
She had told authorities she had bought land and built the tracks primarily to support the budding motocross racing career of her teenage son. But she also allowed other riders to also train at the facilities for a $15 fee.
Or her love of Jesus:
Federal authorities said Ms. Mao had also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars of the money her brothels earned to religious organizations, including $95,000 to a group calling itself MXers for Jesus, according to The Los Angeles Times.
From the LA Video Suppressors Times piece:
Federal tax records show that Mao has contributed heavily to Christian groups. In 2004 alone, her charitable foundation donated more than $170,000, including $40,000 to her Hacienda Heights church, Hosanna Presbyterian, and $95,000 to MXers for Jesus, a group that holds religious services at motocross races. Neither officials from the church nor the MXers group could be reached for comment.
Glad to see Flirty Fishing (NSFW) is still going strong.
(HT to Hamel)
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
What kind of Korean name is “Mao”?
Looks like wjk was right — real Koreans _are_ devout Christians.
Good question — some Koreans get inventive with the Romanization of their names. . . “Zo”, “Swoo”, “Mao”, “One”, etc. Not sure what sort of mental imbalance spurs that.
Mao? Must be married to Mr.Mao
Yeah, Mao is VERY atypical for a Korean name. Mao, or 毛, is 털 or Mol, in Korean. Mol would VERY atypical as well. I say she probably got the surname from her Chinese hubby.
Although it appears to be a Korean owning the whorehouses, I doubt it’s exclusively “Korean” prostitution since most of the whorehouses near LAX are mixed in terms of ethnicity of the whores. Not that I have first hand experience… but that’s what I heard.
“Federal authorities said Ms. Mao had also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars of the money her brothels earned to religious organizations, including $95,000 to a group calling itself MXers for Jesus, according to The Los Angeles Times.”
Nothing new there (if she’s guilty). Many criminals can’t understand the contradiction. Just look at the street gangs in Utah. They literally have the Book of Mormon tucked in their back pocket and a handgun tucked under their belt.
…that or she may just have been playing the church lady, using it as a front or a way to make business connections.
Finally! Now she can concentrate on her MBA.
i think it’s mo.
you’re Korean’s bad, wangkon.
another possibility is the name is actually ‘Ma’.
Ma Jongok flows better and actually sounds like a Korean name.
Marmot, good reporting.
this charity business is a defense mechanism. Mellon, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, they all used it.
but, this lady appealed to the weakness of men, and thought her praying in a Presbyterian church would wash her white.
another stupid gyop.
i bet you she was an Obama voter.
it’s just a funny and tragic combo making headline news in a newspaper that ’selectively’ prints whatever they want.
you’re right, Marmot.
i wonder why they are afraid about the Obama soundbites from leaking.
Just look at the street gangs in Utah. They literally have the Book of Mormon tucked in their back pocket and a handgun tucked under their belt.
You’re making that up, right?
My Korean is… eh. My hanja is bad. 毛 is sometimes romanized as Mou, so Mo in Korean would make sense. But 毛 does translate into fur, so the Korean would be 털 or teol, right? Unless it’s not 毛 but some other hanja character. Damn these tonal languages…
The name has gotta be 모. Seems pretty common referring to clothes, 모 스웨터, 모 양말… 털 is a native Korean root.
According to Wikipedia, it seems to be hanging in there with the fourth-tier names, at 20,000 or so. So hardly moribund. A Korean choosing to spell that particular name in the Chinese way is pretty lame, for sure. Like those families who had picked up a certain infrequent spelling of Heidler. You know, hey, why not switch back?
“You’re making that up, right?”
Nope.
http://video.google.com/videos.....mp;tab=wv#
An ”A” for creativity.
Legalize it.
When Korea meets America.
I’d say. Since it is not Mol, but Mo…
And it *is* 毛, mao2 in Mandarin, mou4 (abbreviated in mo sometimes) in Cantonese, too
In an odd sort of way, this summarizes the current state of America nicely in a Dr. jekyll — Mr. Hyde sort of way. The only thing left is to make this an online computer game and immediately have indignant congressmen talk about how the game is corrupting the youth of America.
When Korea meets America.
In this UN Office on Drugs and Crime report on human trafficking, Korea doesn’t even get listed as a common source of victims trafficked to North America. But it is victims (not people who “voluntarily” go) and it is before the prostitution crackdown in Korea.
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/traff.....006-04.pdf
“Glad to see Flirty Fishing (NSFW) is still going strong.”
“I saw the light!” LOL.
She told me she was studying English in Vancouver!
MraMao, LOL.
fuck dda. He probably can’t see that.
frenchie never answers the hard questions about his countrymen.
Would ‘Ma’ have been a yangban name? Methinks not….sometime in the past I remember seeing a list of names that the upper class uses, and one which the other classes use, and Ma wasn’t there in the yangban section, if I remember correctly.
It just goes to show you that lookin’ for some hot love can lead you to God. Who knew?
Although it appears to be a Korean owning the whorehouses, I doubt it’s exclusively “Korean” prostitution since most of the whorehouses near LAX are mixed in terms of ethnicity of the whores. Not that I have first hand experience… but that’s what I heard.
Tell us more about it. Not that you have any first hand experience, of course.
Wasn’t there a barber shop that offered fine hand experience?
#24 in old days following family names considered to be very low class (i.e. ChunMin)
Chun, Bang, Ji, Chook, Ma, Gol,Pi
She could be a Choseonjok who legally uses the Chinese pinyin name Mao as it might written in her PRC passport. But as has been pointed out above, South Koreans follow no consistent or logical system when romanizing their names (especially when they have reason to use pseudonyms — it gives them plausible deniability). And it very likely could be her husband’s name.
I could not quite piece together the chronology of her crimes and charitable donations, but my first instinct was to think that like many others who have started turning to Christianity after a life of crime, she may have started to repent and “give back to God” to ease her conscience over ill-gotten gains. (Or perhaps her son is a Christian who just asked his rich mom to donate). Unfortunately, although forgiveness is available, legal consequences remain for all who break the law. But then again, that scenario would be giving Mao/Mo the benefit of the doubt…
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