When federal agents raided Rainbow Massage Spa in 2019, one of the two Asian females living and working at the Chatham establishment told investigators she didn't know the name of the community where the spa was located and was warned by the owner not to go outside because it wasn't safe.
The alleged owner, a woman of Chinese descent named Rao Guangxiang, became the third person charged by federal authorities in an investigation into Springfield-area sites of alleged sex trafficking and prostitution that were advertised as Asian massage parlors.
Court documents said Guangxiang and Springfield resident Greg Fraase were "business partners" and that Fraase, Guangxiang, a Chinese woman named Jia Liu and possibly others were operating at least seven "houses of prostitution" that were "fronting as Asian massage parlors."
Guangxiang, a Chinese national who officials said was living in the United States legally, was being held at the Kankakee County Jail on May 2 after being charged with one count of conspiracy April 19 and arrested April 21 in Chicago, according to Daniel Noll, her court-appointed attorney. The charge carries a potential penalty of up to five years in prison.
Federal Magistrate Judge Karen McNaught on May 1 denied Noll's request that Guangxiang, a Springfield resident, be released while her case proceeds in court. Despite Noll's arguments to the contrary, McNaught ruled there was too much risk Guangxiang would flee prosecution to justify her release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanner Jacobs told McNaught that Guangxiang was arrested while "getting on a plane to leave the country" with a one-way plane ticket and several thousand dollars in cash.
Noll said Guangxiang's visa, driver's license and other documents were seized when she was arrested, but Jacobs responded that Guangxiang could seek new travel identification through a Chinese consulate in the United States.
Though Guangxiang has relatives in China, Noll said Guangxiang's husband, who lives in the Tazewell County community of Mackinaw, could keep tabs on her. "She has lived here for years," Noll said.
But Jacobs said Guangxiang, who participated in the May 1 hearing by video from the Kankakee County Jail with the aid of a Chinese interpreter, has "never lived with her husband." And McNaught noted that Guangxiang "didn't know the name of her husband" when interviewed by authorities after her arrest.
McNaught said Guangxiang has "multiple aliases."
Noll said Guangxiang plans to plead not guilty to the conspiracy charge.
It's unclear why it took so long to charge Guangxiang after federal authorities executed a search warrant in November 2019 against Rainbow Massage Spa. Court documents said Guangxiang's alleged criminal activity continued through February 2024.
The Springfield-based U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois declined comment on the case.
The business was operating in a nondescript, one-story business office complex in the 300 block of Williams Lane, just west of a Shell gas station on North Main Street in Chatham. Rainbow Massage operated for three or four years at the site and closed shortly after the raid, according to a neighbor who requested anonymity.
Rainbow Massage operated at the site in rented space covering 1,000 square feet that currently is used for a dance studio, the neighbor said.
Fraase, 60, and Liu, whose age and address haven't been disclosed, were initially charged Feb. 9 and indicted by a federal grand jury on March 5. Both were charged with one count of conspiracy, and Fraase was charged with marriage fraud after he allegedly was paid at least $20,000 to marry a Chinese national and evade U.S. immigration laws to help her gain American citizenship.
Court documents said Springfield prostitution sites for which Fraase paid utility bills on behalf of a company called GLF Group LLC included Cozy Cabin Spa, 1144 E. Sangamon Ave.; Jade Spa, 1560 Wabash Ave.; Capital Spa, 3915 N. Dirksen Parkway; Warm Spa, 116 North Grand Ave. E.; A-1 Spa, 509 N. Dawson St.; and Healthy Spa, 613 N. Seventh St.
Authorities said in court documents that Guangxiang conspired with others to "manage and facilitate prostitution" in four of the Springfield sites and had a financial interest in some of the locations.
Fraase was arrested Feb. 9 and spent four days in the Macon County Jail before being released while his court case continues. He continues to work a $98,000-a-year job at the Sangamon County Water Reclamation District and has pleaded not guilty.
Liu hasn't been arrested.
Court documents said that during the 2019 raid of Rainbow Massage, "various items indicative of sex trafficking and prostitution were found, including soiled towels with bodily fluids, condoms, vaginal cream, lingerie and approximately $1,750 in cash."
One of the Asian females there stated she "provided sexual services to customers upon request for compensation, and she and the other female worked and lived at this location and had only been there a few months," according to the documents.
The female told investigators that the owner of the business was named "Mandy," whom agents later identified as Guangxiang, and that Mandy kept $20 from every massage.
Customers would call the spa's business phone, which was routed to Mandy's phone, and Mandy would communicate by telephone with the female workers using the software application WeChat, according to court documents.
The female worker said Mandy handled all online advertisements for Rainbow Massage.
Guangxiang, who was interviewed by federal agents at the time of the raid, told them she did not offer sexual services when she worked at Rainbow Spa "but did not have control over what the workers did and was not aware of them offering sexual services."
However, a review of the WeChat messages Guangxiang allegedly wrote in Mandarin Chinese showed that she "discussed changing pictures on advertisements and providing sexual services," according to court documents.
Guangxiang told federal agents she used WeChat to find and hire workers for the Chatham massage parlor.
During a raid of Capital Spa on Feb. 8, agents found condoms, more than $1,700 in cash and Mandarin instructions on how to "communicate sexual services to customers," court documents indicated.
Fraase told a confidential source Aug. 23, 2023, on a phone call monitored and recorded by the FBI, that females working at the Asian spas could earn as much as $15,000 to $30,000 per month.
Fraase alluded to women traveling from other countries to work at the spas.
"They're making a lifetime's worth of money in a month," he allegedly said during the phone call. "... We provide shelter, we provide the rent.
"If they get an hour job, it's $60," Fraase told the source. "I get $50 of that. So they're basically getting five or $10 of the job, plus their tip. Most of 'em mainly (are) working for their tip. The $5 or $10 doesn't mean a whole lot. ... They have a shower, you know. Most of these girls coming over, they don't even have a shower at their house. ... They wash in a 55-gallon barrel of rainwater."
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at 217-679-7810, [email protected] or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
