BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A Palo Alto couple that ran a network of brothels in Santa Clara County has signed a deal that will send the husband to prison for eight years and the wife to four years of house arrest, court records show.
David Davies, 60, and Larong Hu, 41, exploited dozens of women, mostly from China, but also South Korea and Eastern Europe, investigators said.
Davies had amassed a net worth of $9.5 million, and Hu had $2.6 million in her accounts that were frozen, investigators said.
Davies will pay a $750,000 fine and have his assets forfeited to the Santa Clara County government, the plea deal said.
Davies worked at Broadcom and lived with Hu and their son in the Crescent Park neighborhood at 21 Tevis Place, across the street from Pardee Park.
They established their brothels in 2015, changing locations over the years between Milpitas, San Jose and Hayward, according to the investigation led by DA Investigators Laurence Ryan and Lamont Cusseaux and Milpitas Detective Brian Thanh.
Detectives found an Excel spreadsheet with over 10,000 entries, appearing to be a ledger listing the names and phone numbers of customers. Some of the entries had comments on them, like “rough with girls, robbery, refused to pay, drunk, and banned from brothel,” Thanh said.
Davies and Hu once placed letters around an apartment complex in Milpitas where a rival brothel operated, urging tenants to report the brothel to police, Thanh said.
One victim, Baiyan Liang, told investigators that she came from China to the United States with a tour group in March 2015 to pay for her sick mother’s medical treatments.
Liang said she started working as a masseuse but was lured into sex work by group chats on WeChat, a Chinese messaging platform. When she arrived at a brothel for work, she would turn over her passport and personal belongings for as long as she was there.
Liang said she had no choice but to work while inside the brothel so that she could pay for her food.
Clients paid about $120, Liang said. The “boss” would get $40 and the worker would get $80, with money deducted for food, housing and payments back to China.
“Once they arrive, sex workers are placed on a scheduled circuit of travel from brothel to brothel in different cities throughout the U.S.,” Thanh said in his report. “At these locations, the sex workers stay for one week, are not allowed to leave the location, and perform sex acts for money with approximately 10 to 15 customers each day.”
Police searched six apartments being used as brothels and found cash, condoms and lubricant.
Officers found no evidence of brothel activities inside the Palo Alto home. Only Davies was there when officers executed their search warrant.
Hu and Davies advertised their brothels online and in the Sing Tao Daily newspaper. The advertisements promoted “new girls every week” between the ages of 19-24, Thanh said. Hu and Davies had associates who helped them by renting apartments and managing the brothels. They offered maintenance workers cash tips and access to girls in exchange for their silence, investigators found.
One associate told police that Hu made $30,000 a month.
Hu had set up a fake job at a fake company, and had “straw renters” sign leases at the brothels to make them look like legitimate housing, investigators said.
Hu and Davies have since sold their home in Palo Alto and moved to Santa Clara, court records show.
Davies filed for divorce from Hu in March, court records show.
Davies said in his petition that he and his wife wanted joint custody of their 5-year-old son and didn’t need the court to divide their assets. Davies and Hu signed a plea deal with Deputy District Attorney Patrick Vanier on June 28, approved by Judge Benjamin Williams.
Davies is represented by attorney Charles Smith, and attorney Renee Hessling is defending Hu.
Vanier agreed to release six months of living expenses to Davies. The $750,000 fine will go directly from his seized assets to a human trafficking fund. The rest of his assets will go to the Santa Clara County General Fund, court records show.
The couple, out on supervised release, hasn’t been formally sentenced yet. Their next court date is on Dec. 10 for a status update at the Palo Alto Courthouse.