Third S’porean added to US ‘worst of worst’ criminal list for coercing women into prostitution
Aqil Hamzah
The Straits Times
Oct 5, 2026
A woman convicted of operating a prostitution ring disguised as legitimate massage parlours is the third Singaporean named on the US Department of Homeland Security’s list of “worst of worst criminal aliens”.
Jing Emtage, 54, was arrested in May 2023 along with her husband following an investigation that began in 2021.
She is currently being held at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Northwest processing centre in Washington.
During the two-year operation, law enforcement shut down nine massage parlours belonging to the couple and rescued 23 women who had been trafficked and forced to provide sexual services.
The Singaporean woman was sentenced to two years and two months in prison on July 25, 2025, while her husband Gerald Emtage, 49, was sentenced to 38 months’ jail.
The woman originally ran a massage therapy business in Singapore before moving to the US in January 2018, where she met her husband and married him the following year, according to her sentencing memorandum, which argued for a more lenient sentence.
The document said the couple originally started a legitimate massage business, but financial losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic led them to offer illicit services.
Court documents, however, painted a different picture. Prosecutors said the couple made “significant profits” by exploiting dozens of women, who were housed in the massage parlours while the pair lived in a home that cost more than US$1 million (S$1.28 million).
They added that the couple had funnelled more than a million dollars through their bank accounts, but there were no records of them paying any wages to their victims. At the time of their arrest, they were found with more than US$600,000 in cash.
The Seattle branch of ICE said on social media in August, 2026, that the Singaporean was awaiting deportation proceedings. The Straits Times has contacted ICE for more information.
The list of “worst of worst criminal aliens” on the Department of Homeland Security website currently has 46.275 people. Launched in December 2025, it catalogues “criminal illegal aliens” who have been arrested since the beginning of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Amos Yee was the first Singaporean added to the list when it was launched. Yee was deported to Singapore in March after serving a jail term in the US for child pornography and sexual grooming.
In February, a second Singaporean, Lim Seok Pheng, was added to the list. She was arrested for suspected money laundering, and subsequently provided information about those she worked with. This led to the prosecution of individuals who were laundering money for Mexican drug cartels.
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