MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – A woman is behind bars and accused of running a brothel, or illicit massage parlor, in Moncks Corner. Hong Song Wang, 49, of Bonneau is charged with first-offense prostitution. Agents with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) arrested her on Monday.
According to an affidavit, in November 2018, detectives with the Moncks Corner Police Department advised SLED agents that they had received a complaint about the Wenxin Day Spa and Massage, located at 113 North Live Oak Drive in Moncks Corner, providing sexual services to its customers. SLED opened an investigation into the business which included surveillance, an undercover buy operation and subsequent search.
On Dec. 20, 2018 SLED agents and a Berkeley County Sheriff’s Metro Narcotics Team conducted a trash pull at the business, which yielded evidence of a sexual nature to include used tissues, suspected of containing biological samples of largely semen and used female yeast infection medication capsules, authorities said.
“These items located together at the business indicated illicit activity that otherwise would not be located in the trash of a legitimate massage business,” the affidavit read.
On Jan. 8, 2019, paperwork was filed with the Moncks Corner Business Licensing Office which indicated a desire to change the business name from Wenxin to Pearl Spa. The paperwork was filed with a new owner, however, the defendant maintained control of the business financial account, according to the affidavit.
On Aug. 22, 2019, SLED agents said they conducted an undercover operation at Pearl Spa. The operation was recorded using a surveillance device brought into the business by an undercover agent. The undercover agent paid for his massage upfront utilizing state funds. Near the completion of the massage, SLED agents said the undercover agent negotiated a sexual act with the massage employee with the specific direction that he should return in 30 minutes because she needed to finish with another customer first.
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On Nov. 5, 2019, SLED agents said an inquiry was made with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center and call volume at the business was checked. “No reports were made by anyone indicating complaints from business employees or customers of illicit sexual activity occurring at the business,” the affidavit read. A search was conducted on Pearl Spa using rubmaps.ch, a website used by sex buyers to post reviews about sexual services provided at massage parlors, and new customer reviews were left in June, August and September 2019. According to authorities, the reviews left by these customers indicated that they received illicit sexual services during their massages.
On Nov. 13, 2019, after obtaining a search warrant, authorities said they went into Pearl Spa and collected a variety of evidence. They said they determined that the majority of the client base was male, which was corroborated by the credit card receipts collected and previous surveillance of the business. A check of the handwritten ledgers and credit cards receipts showed that at times customers tipped disproportionately to the services they received. “Through training and experience, it is believed that customers were paying for additional services, namely illicit ones, and providing payment through their tipping of the massage employees,” the affidavit said.
During an interview with investigators, Hong Song Wang reportedly told authorities that she was the owner of the business up until three days prior to the search of the business. According to authorities, she said that she sold the business, however, no reports of the business sale transaction have been reported to the state of South Carolina, Berkeley County or Moncks Corner.
On Dec. 2, 2019, Hong Song Wang was arrested and booked into the Berkeley County Detention Center.
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