UPDATE: Paul Jumroon, 54, of Depoe Bay, Ore., no longer owns Teriyaki Thai located at 109 S. 65th Ave., Ste. 103 in Ridgefield or Thai Curry in a Hurry located at 1235 McVey Ave., Ste. A in Lake Oswego, Ore.
According to state records, Rujira Woraphan, registered Teriyaki Thai in July 2016 under the entity name Vilaivan LLC with the Washington Department of Revenue. She says that she and Sombat Wongthawinkul purchased the restaurant in 2016 and have no affiliation with Jumroon.
He is also no longer the registered owner of Curry in a Hurry; the restaurant sold and has been under new management since 2016, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Corporation Division.
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The former owner of a Ridgefield restaurant pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Portland to forced labor, visa fraud conspiracy and filing a false federal income tax return, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Paul Jumroon, 54, of Depoe Bay, Ore., who is also known as Veraphon Phatanakitjumroon, waived indictment by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in Portland and pleaded guilty to the information filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, according to the press release.
Jumroon is a naturalized citizen from Thailand. He owned Teriyaki Thai in Ridgefield.
He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for forced labor, five years for visa fraud conspiracy and three years for filing a false tax return. Sentencing is set for May 24 before U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown.
Between 2011 and 2014, Jumroon fraudulently obtained E-2 visas to bring Thai nationals to the U.S. to provide cheap labor at the Ridgefield restaurant and Curry in a Hurry in Lake Oswego, Ore., according to his plea agreement and admissions in court.
E-2 visas are granted to foreign nationals who invest substantial money into and manage the operations of a U.S. business, as well as employees who have special qualifications essential to the business, the press release states.
He used the visas to bring four forced labor victims to the country. The first victim arrived in the U.S. in June 2012; the second victim arrived in April 2013. Federal officials did not provide information about the third and fourth victims.
Jumroon employed several manipulative tactics, including inflated travel expenses, debt manipulation, threats of deportation, financial and reputational harm, verbal abuse, and control over identification documents, to force the victims to work 12-hour days, six to seven days a week for minimal pay. The first two victims managed to leave in October 2013 and 2014, respectively, according to the Department of Justice.
As part of his plea agreement, Jumroon will pay the four victims a combined $131,391.95 in restitution for unpaid labor.
In addition to forced labor, Jumroon admitted to filing multiple false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. He failed to report cash income earned from his restaurants between 2012 and 2015. He has agreed to pay the IRS $120,384.
“Human trafficking is a degrading crime that undermines our nation’s most basic promise of liberty. This defendant preyed on the hopes of vulnerable workers, using fear to compel them to work long hours for little pay. He turned a promise of employment and a better life into a human tragedy for his own financial gain,” U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams for the District of Oregon states in the press release.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hannah Horsley and Scott Bradford of the District of Oregon, and Lindsey Roberson of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, are prosecuting the case.
It was jointly investigated by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation division and Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, with the assistance of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and Portland Police Bureau.
