Buddhist monk kept Korean woman as slave in Queens NY for 12 years

nypost.com ^ | April 1, 2016 | By Selim Algar

[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.

[Jack Hammer]

This guy was clearly not a monk, but, rather, a sleazy opportunist and faker going through the motions for the sake of The Good Life.