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Buddhist monk kept Korean woman as slave in Queens NY for 12 years
nypost.com ^ | April 1, 2016 | By Selim Algar

Posted on 04/14/2016 11:21:57 AM PDT by dennisw

Maybe now she can regain her Zen.

A modern day slave who sued a Buddhist monk and his family for forcing her to work for more than a decade without pay has won $933,345 in back pay and damages, The Post has learned.

After finally escaping the nightmare in 2011, Oak Jin Oh, a Korean national, sued Queens holy man Soo Bok Choi, claiming she was forced to relentlessly cook, clean, and sleep on a cement floor under threat of violence.

Oh said Choi hired her through a South Korean employment agency and that she was promised about $1,000 a month in pay as a domestic worker.

She was initially flown to Toronto before being taken by boat to New York and then finally to Choi’s Elmhurst home that doubled as a Buddhist Temple.

Over the next 12 years, Oh was shuttled between various Choi residences across Queens where she slaved for seven days a week for 14 hours a day, court papers state.

Threatened with murder and deportation, Oh was compelled to toil under extreme conditions — and even had to change soiled bedclothes for elderly members of the family, papers state.

The Buddhists stiffed her on pay and refused to let her venture outside unless she was fetching groceries.

“Whenever plaintiff asked Soo Bok when she would be paid, Soo Bok responded with verbal abuse and threats, including that he would strike her and hire someone to kill her,” court papers state.

Oh finally wrenched free from the family with the help of an unidentified Good Samaritan who became aware of her plight.

Judge Marilyn Go signed off on the default judgment this week after Choi repeatedly missed court dates and refused to participate in the case, according to court papers.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society; Travel
KEYWORDS: aliens
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1 posted on 04/14/2016 11:21:57 AM PDT by dennisw
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To: dennisw

If can’t trust a Buddhist monk then who can you trust?? My faith in humanity has sunk another notch or two.


2 posted on 04/14/2016 11:23:07 AM PDT by dennisw
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To: dennisw

Unfortunately, she will never receive a dime.


3 posted on 04/14/2016 11:25:18 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Liberals are the Taliban of America, trying to tear down any symbol that they don't like.)
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To: Darksheare

You will never defeat Bok Choi!


4 posted on 04/14/2016 11:26:04 AM PDT by null and void ("when authority began inspiring contempt, it had stopped being authority" ~ H. Beam Piper)
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To: dennisw

A civil judgment is only as good as the defendant’s ability to pay it. I don’t recall Buddhist monks being all that affluent.


5 posted on 04/14/2016 11:26:50 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: dennisw

Soo Bok Choi?

Sum Ting Wong.....


6 posted on 04/14/2016 11:28:13 AM PDT by norcal joe
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To: dennisw

Soo Bok Choi?

Yes she did.


7 posted on 04/14/2016 11:30:00 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: dennisw
refused to let her venture outside unless she was fetching groceries

She couldn't escape.

8 posted on 04/14/2016 11:30:25 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: dennisw
Queens holy man Soo Bok Choi

If Brooklyn can have a "Reverend" like Al Sharpton, then Queens can have this guy.

9 posted on 04/14/2016 11:31:09 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: dennisw
Soo Bok Choi.....a person couldn't make this .... up.
10 posted on 04/14/2016 11:32:08 AM PDT by vetvetdoug
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To: vetvetdoug

Thats a lotta cabbage


11 posted on 04/14/2016 11:34:47 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: circlecity

I am sure his family is wealthy. she now needs to go after the temple because his house was doubling as a place of worship and the membership in his temple was taking advantage of her services.


12 posted on 04/14/2016 11:39:30 AM PDT by PCPOET7
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To: PCPOET7
"I am sure his family is wealthy."

Well, it doesn't say she got a judgment against his family.

13 posted on 04/14/2016 11:40:36 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: dennisw

I wonder what services this employment agency provides other than booking passenger ferry rides across lake ontario. They apparently don’t really care to follow up and find out what their placements think of their assignments.

If she was on some sort of temporary employment eligible visa and the US actually tracked visa entry and exits then perhaps she would have been rescued sooner.


14 posted on 04/14/2016 11:44:46 AM PDT by posterchild
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To: dennisw
"The central message of Buddhism is not "every man for himself.'"

Jamie Lee Curtis to Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda

15 posted on 04/14/2016 12:04:38 PM PDT by DSH
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To: dennisw
... claiming she was forced to relentlessly cook, clean, and sleep on a cement floor under threat of violence.

Didn't Mr. Bok Choi notice the relentless cooking at some point and decide he'd rather get takeout?

But seriously I would say, "Who writes this garble?" only I see that it's one Selim Algar, for whom we may assume English is not the first language.

Mr. Algar deserves a special Incompetent Writing award for his description of caring for the elderly as the worst torture inflicted on the unfortunate Ms. Oak.

16 posted on 04/14/2016 12:06:41 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The world is full of wonder, but you see it only if you look." ~NicknamedBob)
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To: posterchild

What kind of lies and scams didthe monk Bok Choi pull to get his slave into the US? He might have called her a Buddhist nun who was essential to what he was doing? Who knows.


17 posted on 04/14/2016 12:34:34 PM PDT by dennisw
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To: Tax-chick

“Didn’t Mr. Bok Choi notice the relentless cooking at some point and decide he’d rather get takeout?”

Ring ring:
(answers)
Hunaaaan???

(reply)
Bok Choi!

Counterman: Haaannnh? NO! HUNAN!!!!

Bok Choi. You derivah? HA HA HAA!


18 posted on 04/14/2016 1:29:53 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Off the NWO)
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To: dennisw

Bok choy is a type of Chinese cabbage. April 1 joke?


19 posted on 04/14/2016 1:37:57 PM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: ichabod1

*snicker*


20 posted on 04/14/2016 1:49:08 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The world is full of wonder, but you see it only if you look." ~NicknamedBob)
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