U.S. Border Control

New charges filed in strippers' case

Alaskan couple accused of trafficking in humans

By Sheila Toomey 
Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News
February 23, 2001

Immigration fraud charges against a Chugiak couple accused of luring Russian women to Anchorage and then forcing them
to strip at a local nightclub have been boosted to kidnapping, forced labor and interstate transportation of minors for
immoral purposes.

A new 23-count indictment returned Wednesday names Tony and Rachel Kennard, both longtime Alaska residents; Victor
Virchenko, a Russian who delivered the women to Anchorage; and Pavel Agafonov, a Russian-American who lives in
Marietta, Ga.

The case is the first prosecution in the United States under a new anti exploitation law passed by Congress in October and
aimed at traffickers in human beings, especially women and children, said U.S. Attorney Bob Bundy.

"All across the country we're hearing more and more about people who want to come to this country so much that people
can lure them here then treat them like third-rate human beings," Bundy said.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., has joined Bundy's office in the prosecution.

According to the charges, Tony Kennard and Agafonov hatched the scheme in October via e-mail. Agafonov operated a
Web site that advertised "Russian brides" and "Sex Tours of St. Petersburg," the indictment says.

The plan was to bring Russian women to Alaska under the guise of a cultural exchange and then put them to work dancing
at strip clubs and keep all their earnings, according to charging documents.

Agafonov then contacted Virchenko, a well-known dance teacher in the Krasnodar region of Russia, and he agreed to
recruit women by telling them they would be performing traditional folk dances at a nonexistent cultural event called
"Russian Winter in Alaska," the indictment says.

Virchenko taught the women dances and had professional photographs taken of them. He sent the photos to Tony Kennard,
who rejected some of the prospects as "not attractive enough for the conspiracy's purposes," the indictment says.

Tony Kennard conned the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce into getting the mayor's office to issue an official
invitation for a Russian folk dancing group and then altered the letter to extend the dates and number of functions, the
charges say. He sent it to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and to the Russian Ministry of Culture and applied for visas giving
the false information.

Virchenko brought seven women to Alaska, landing first in Minnesota. Two of the women were under 18, the minimum age
for nude dancing. As a result, the three men are charged with bringing minors across state lines for illegal sexual activity.

The women were originally told their expenses were being paid by a cultural organization, the charges say. When told they
were to dance nude, they at first refused to cooperate and said they wanted to go home. But Virchenko had confiscated their
passports and return plane tickets and said they couldn't get them back until they had earned enough money dancing to pay
for them, the charges say.

"Unable to leave the country without their plane tickets and travel documents, unable to speak English, and fearing that
harm would come to them if they did not acquiesce, (the women) submitted to the defendants' demands . . . hoping to be
allowed to leave on January 19, 2001, the return date of their plane tickets," the indictment says.

Virchenko and the Kennards isolated the women, threatened them, monitored their calls, confiscated their money and kept
all the earnings from their engagement at the Crazy Horse nightclub, which adds up to forced labor, the charges say.

Investigators from the local Immigration and Naturalization Service office raided the Crazy Horse on Jan. 4 and eventually
took the women into protective custody. Virchenko is charged with witness intimidation for allegedly telling the juveniles
to lie to the INS about having danced at the club. The new indictment mentions only six victims, though earlier charges
name seven. Officials could not be reached late Thursday to explain.

All four defendants were arrested last month, and all entered not-guilty pleas to the initial charges. Both Kennards are free
in the custody of separate third parties approved by the court. Virchenko is at a halfway house. Agafonov is free on bail
after putting up his home and has returned to Georgia, said assistant U.S. attorney Dan Cooper.

The women remain in Anchorage pending trial set for March. They are being provided for with funds that Congress
attached to the new law "to make sure victims are maintained," Cooper said.