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Accused Human Trafficker Interviewed by Hawaii Reporter

Mordecai Orion, CSO of Global Horizons, who has been indicted by the federal government for the human trafficking of immigrant farm workers, is interviewed by Hawaii Reporter's Malia Zimmerman. The case is said to be the largest human trafficking case in U.S. history. Mordecai, an Israeli, and Global Horizons are connected to the Aloun Farms human trafficking case, which has also been widely followed, not only in Hawaii, but nationwide.

Malia was the reporter who interviewed Thai farm workers who had formerly worked for brothers Alec and Mike Sou, owners of Oahu's Aloun Farms. The workers told Malia that they were enslaved by the pair, who, when the allegations came to light, were investigated by the FBI and charged with human trafficking. The workers, who originally had legal status to come to Hawaii and work at Aloun Farms, had lost that status after a few months at there. But they became eligible to legally stay in the U.S. and gain a path to eventual U.S. citizenship in exchange for helping the federal government prosecute the Sou brothers on human trafficking charges.

The federal government is throwing the book at the Sou brothers because they are choosing to fight the charges rather than agree to a plea bargain. In an agenda of well-established federal prosecutorial intimidation, the feds are adding charge after charge onto the brothers, with each charge adding tremendously to their already high legal defense costs and also to their prospective jail time if they are convicted. Unlike private citizens, the federal government's ability to pursue a case in court is unrestrained by limited funds.

Links:

The Sting 2010   Long (7500 words), but does a good job of explaining the Sou brothers human trafficking case. [HPI]

Federal prosecutor proceeds against sitting Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, wins conviction. But was he really guilty? [Forbes] by Harvey Silverglate