INDIANAPOLIS | It appears three licensed massage therapists accused of participating in a Valparaiso prostitution operation may lose their licenses.
The Indiana Board of Massage Therapy voted Monday to issue a proposed notice of default against Min Ye, He Rong Xie and Xiu Qin Xu. The decision means each woman can be formally stripped of her massage therapy license at the next board meeting.
The attorney general's office sought revocation of the three massage therapy licenses registered and posted on the wall at the Oriental Pain Management Center, 823 Lincolnway. The facility was the site of an undercover raid in January by Valparaiso police and the Porter County Drug Task Force.
On three occasions, undercover officers received $40 massages and for $40 more staff offered to fondle the officers. As part of their investigation, the officers accepted the additional services but left before the act was completed, said Valparaiso Detective Philip Rochon.
As a result of the police investigations, Wenjuan Yao, 44, was charged with prostitution, and Min Ye, 46, was charged with aiding in prostitution. Both women face a year in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor charges.
Deputy Attorney General Amanda Bailor told the massage therapy board that the massage parlor was "designed to make it appear to the public legitimate massage therapy services are being provided." But, Bailor said, "the primary business of Oriental Pain Management Center is prostitution offered under the guise of massage therapy."
"The State of Indiana will not tolerate these bad actors using massage therapy certificates to engage in prostitution," Bailor said.
None of the licensees appeared at the board hearing. Xie and Xu were not arrested as part of the undercover sting and may no longer even be in Indiana, Rochon said.
The state nevertheless asked that their licenses be revoked because they provided a sense of legitimacy to what was, in essence, a house of prostitution, Bailor said.
The Indiana Board of Massage Therapy began licensing and regulating massage therapists in 2008. The Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division investigates complaints lodged against licensed professionals.
