{"id":29727,"date":"2025-09-18T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29727\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T14:03:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:03:20","slug":"crown-takes-mount-maunganui-house-cash-rolex-car-after-hongxia-may-chen-hired-illegal-sex-workers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29727\/","title":{"rendered":"Crown takes Mount Maunganui house, cash, Rolex, car after Hongxia May Chen hired illegal sex workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

But that wasn\u2019t the end of the matter.<\/p>\n

Now, $1,117,000 worth of her assets have been forfeited to the Crown and police have provided evidence to suggest her offending was greater than previously known.<\/p>\n

It started with a tip about a brothel<\/p>\n

In August 2021, as NZ was in lockdown, someone reported to police that a brothel was still operating out of the Mount Maunganui house, which Chen owned, despite the nationwide restrictions.<\/p>\n

The house is a stone\u2019s throw from retirement villages and sits on a main road that runs along the beachfront. <\/p>\n

When investigators turned up, they discovered Chinese nationals working illegally as sex workers on expired temporary visas.<\/p>\n

Immigration NZ had already, in May 2021, received information unlawful Chinese females were providing commercial sexual services in NZ and launched Operation Orion, which focused on Chen\u2019s brothels.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood the women found in the Mount Maunganui brothel weren\u2019t deported because of Covid-19 restrictions, but some months later one of them was detained after being found in a car with Chen in Alexandra. <\/p>\n

The woman was discovered to have $11,000 in cash on her. Chen tried to claim the cash belonged to her and said she\u2019d lent it to the woman. <\/p>\n

Immigration NZ\u2019s investigations<\/a> continued, leading to search warrants in May 2022 at the Mount Maunganui address, as well as the house on Morningside Drive, Auckland, and Chen\u2019s own residential address on Great North Rd.<\/p>\n

All three addresses were working brothels with multiple internal rooms specifically used by workers to provide sexual services, and further unlawful Chinese women were found during those searches.<\/p>\n

Judge says industry \u2018already has issues with vulnerability\u2019<\/p>\n

Chen initially faced charges related to seven women but pleaded guilty and was sentenced on five charges, related to five women, of aiding and abetting a person to breach a condition of their visa. <\/p>\n

Under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, holders of temporary visas, or people unlawfully in NZ, may not provide commercial sexual services.<\/p>\n

When spoken to by police, Chen claimed she had provided accommodation for women who could not afford it and admitted paying for and placing advertisements for those girls on an escorting site.<\/p>\n

She also admitted supplying one of them condoms.<\/p>\n

At sentencing in the Auckland District Court, Judge Kirsten Lummis noted an aggravating feature of the offending was that it hadn\u2019t been a one-off and had taken place over the course of a year.<\/p>\n

She also said it was an industry that \u201calready has issues with vulnerability\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"AucklandAuckland District Court Judge Kirsten Lummis. Photo \/ Alex Burton<\/p>\n

\u201cThis offending preys on further vulnerabilities in offering opportunities to women to stay here illegally,\u201d Judge Lummis said.<\/p>\n

However, she also took into account Chen\u2019s lack of previous convictions in NZ and China.<\/p>\n

Chen told the court she had been suffering a \u201chigh level of stress in her personal life at the time\u201d, related to financial insecurity.<\/p>\n

She reported being in dire need of income after her divorce.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, I worked for myself but … I wanted to help others have income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Lummis sentenced her to five months\u2019 community detention in November 2022.<\/p>\n

Offending likely to have gone \u2018beyond that proven by her convictions\u2019<\/p>\n

Now, her assets have been forfeited to the Crown.<\/p>\n

In a decision dated September 5, High Court Justice David Johnstone approved a settlement between Chen and the Commissioner of Police for assets with a total estimated value of around $1,117,000 to be forfeited.<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice David Johnstone, pictured at an unrelated hearing in the High Court at Auckland. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

These included the Mount Maunganui house, around $145,000 in cash, a Rolex watch found in a safe deposit box in Auckland and a vehicle. <\/p>\n

But initially, the commissioner had also sought what\u2019s called a \u201cprofit forfeiture\u201d.<\/p>\n

The matter had been on its way to a defended hearing and the commissioner filed material that indicated Chen\u2019s offending went \u201cconsiderably beyond that proven by her convictions\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the charges Chen was sentenced on in 2022 related to a handful of illegal workers, \u201cnumerous affidavits\u201d contained evidence alleging that between 2018 and 2022 she had employed up to \u201c150 women on temporary visas as sex workers\u201d. <\/p>\n

This was supported by 150 distinct profiles shown on an escort advertising website, registered to Chen, as well as police analysis of bank accounts associated with Chen, her company Sun Entertainment and her ex-husband. <\/p>\n

Financial records indicated receipt of around $1.8m between 2016 and 2023, which could be attributed to sex work. <\/p>\n

Based on this, the commissioner initially sought a profit forfeiture of just over $2m.<\/p>\n

This was reduced to $1.5m, as it was confined to a more limited time period and to account for her doing some of the sex work herself.<\/p>\n

The judgment said the commissioner considered amending the profit forfeiture application to include funds allegedly being held in Chinese bank accounts but decided against it because of the delays it could cause and other potential complications.<\/p>\n

However, the original profit forfeiture sought, and still in dispute, was scheduled for a defended hearing in November. <\/p>\n

But before that could go ahead, a resolution was reached.<\/p>\n

Chen consented to the already restrained assets being forfeited and police abandoned their claim of profit forfeiture.<\/p>\n

The High Court<\/a> judgment said \u201cbroadly, Ms Chen has left NZ and wants to put this matter behind her\u201d.<\/p>\n

In being prepared to formally consent to the restrained property being subject to a forfeiture order, she \u201cassists the commissioner to avoid the further cost of proceeding to judgment\u201d, the judgment says.<\/p>\n

Recognising this, the commissioner was prepared to forego the \u201climited prospect\u201d of any further recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsistency with the act\u2019s purposes and the overall interests of justice requires that the settlement achieves a satisfactory balance between the objectives of potential profit elimination (and deterrence) and prompt and cost-effective resolution,\u201d the judgment said.<\/p>\n

Justice Johnstone accepted the parties\u2019 submission that the settlement was consistent with this and approved it.<\/p>\n

Forfeiture orders were made by consent for the Mount Maunganui property, proceeds of the sale of a 2016 Toyota Vellfire station wagon, around $145,000 in cash and the Rolex watch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood the current tenants of the Mount Maunganui property have no connection to the former brothel or the offending.<\/p>\n

Immigration NZ welcomed the forfeiture of more than $1m in assets, saying it marked the final step of a \u201ccomplex and sustained operation\u201d into Chen and her company. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a significant and sustained operation involving multiple agencies over several years,\u201d said Steve Watson, general manager immigration compliance and investigations. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not tolerate this kind of offending. It undermines the integrity of our immigration system and puts vulnerable people at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart McGowan, of NZ Police\u2019s asset recovery unit, said it was another \u201cgood example of an across-Government approach \u2013 Immigration and police \u2013 working together to hold offenders to account\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is equally rewarding to have secured convictions and the subsequent seizure of illegally purchased assets from someone who preyed on and scammed vulnerable people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But that wasn\u2019t the end of the matter. Now, $1,117,000 worth of her assets have been forfeited to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20391,74,1970,3944,6932,28949,28951,18478,10808,28953,28950,28948,10053,16484,15975,28952,5829,17707,7810,1132,13233,111,43,139,69,1523,675,26525,28947,7680,1120,2044,2248,4478],"class_list":["post-29727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-20391","tag-after","tag-believe","tag-car","tag-cash","tag-chen","tag-chens","tag-course","tag-crown","tag-employed","tag-hired","tag-hongxia","tag-house","tag-illegal","tag-illegally","tag-madam","tag-many","tag-maunganui","tag-may","tag-million","tag-mount","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-police","tag-pulled","tag-rolex","tag-sex","tag-takes","tag-time","tag-women","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}