Beaverton Brothel Owner Extradited From Canada, Arraigned: Feds

BEAVERTON, OR — There was a brothel in Beaverton where young woman, mostly from China, mostly who didn't want to be working as a prostitute, that was operated by a Canadian named Zongtao Chen also known as Mark Chen. That's according to federal officials who say that Chen was arraigned on Friday in Portland.

Chen was one of five people indicted in Portland federal court in November 2018.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, "Chen promoted illegal prostitution activities in brothels n Portland, Tigard, and Beaverton." He's also accused of running operations in other cities in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Prosecutors say that Chen "led a criminal enterprise" that would recruit the woman who would be used to provide "dates" to men who would call, text, email, or use an encrypted instant message address, using information they would get from a website, www.supermatchescort.com.

The FBI would seize the website and around 500 others at the same time as they conducted operations targeting what they say were Chen's operating in more than one dozen cities across the United States.

Chen was arrested last November in Toronto by their police department's Human Trafficking Enforcement Team and Fugitive Squad.

He was extradited and arrived earlier this week in Portland.