Report by Christina Parreira —
Yet another ‘trafficking survivor’ has been outed as a liar, thief, and fraud. Unfortunately, I do not feel even the slightest tinge of surprise. For those of us who are constantly attempting to educate others on the differences between sex trafficking and sex work, the shrieks of these wounded anti-trafficking mouthpieces serve to shut us up.
Chong Kim made it pretty far, and I give her that; the tears, the shaking on stage, the Netflix movie! She was almost home free, wasn’t she?
Artwork for the film, ‘Eden’
Until this statement appeared on the Breaking Out (non profit org) Facebook page earlier today:
On February 21, I had attended a free event at University of Nevada Las Vegas hosted by the Social Work department and Bamboo Bridges, an “anti-trafficking” non-profit in Las Vegas.
It was a screening of the film, Eden, which is based on Chong Kim’s (apparently false) story of being sex-trafficked in Nevada in the 1990s.
Bergquist is also the co-founder of Bamboo Bridges. In fact she is the co-founder, board member, and grant writer of Bamboo Bridges.
She also spoke of the work that she does now, assisting the Department of Justice to eradicate trafficking on Native American reservations. I listened, but felt wary. I had heard this narrative many, many times before, often used to silence consenting adult sex workers.
Naturally, a fundraiser followed.
Thank you to Breaking Out for publishing the truth about yet another anti-trafficking zealot and fraud.
Chong Kim, thank you for wasting three hours of my life, for fooling thousands, maybe millions, with your fantasy tales of torture, and lastly, thank you for continuing to confuse the general public about the difference between consensual sex work and sex trafficking. The last thing we needed was another pretend victim. This is disgusting, shameful, and yet, not surprising!
Isn’t it ironic how the whores are always the ones being accused of foul play, and yet, here we are shining the light on yet another charlatan?
Just last week, another fraud, Somaly Mam, was forced to resign her own foundation over revelations that she too is a serial fabricator.
Lastly, I cast a wary eye on Bamboo Bridges, the organization that hosted “An Evening with Eden,” for a mere $100 entrance fee on February 22. Bamboo Bridges – Past Events
As always, I am curious to know where these donations are going, and whom they are helping. Also, will Bamboo Bridges have anything to say about these latest revelations?
UPDATE: From the Breaking Out Facebook page:
Morgan Stacy, an acolyte of Shelley Lubben — a disgraced fraud who runs a sham non-profit called Pink Cross Foundation — has jumped into the fray:
An all-too-typical refrain — Why not just cover up people’s wrongdoing?
*whose
Chong Kim is receiving support from people who work with anti-porn/anti-sex work fraud Shelley Lubben — a woman who robbed and exploited a cancer patient!
Let that sink in…
How long will it take for mainstream media’s shameful credulity regarding the whole sex-trafficking-panic to catch up with reality? They never ask these posers the hard questions journalists should ask to be worthy of the occupation. They spew the party line on this subject as if it had come down from Mt. Sinai on stone tablets. And as they do this they cast their lot with those whose mad schemes would make life even more difficult for legitimate sex workers. I have no sympathy for those who are defrauded by these hucksters. Fools and their money deserve to be parted.… Read more »
[…] Somaly Mam‘s resignation from her eponymous anti-sex trafficking group, we reported on the story of Chong Kim, the so-called human trafficking survivor who has been accused of being a lia… by the nonprofit anti-trafficking group, Breaking […]
[…] to be a fraud. Still, Hollywood did have time to make a movie based on her fictional story. Surprise! Alleged trafficking survivor Chong Kim revealed to be a liar, thief and fraud – TRPWL : TR… Sign in or Register Now to […]
[…] And yet, these nuns still receive funding from the Irish government and their lies about sex workers are still accepted unquestioningly by the Irish media. In the United States, laws and old prejudices prevent the Catholic Church from gaining quite such a powerful hold, but nothing short of absolute exposure stops sociopaths like Somaly Mam or the woman whose supposedly “true” story the movie Eden was based on: […]
[…] The latest in the strange case of “trafficking survivor” Chong Kim… […]
[…] Another “sex trafficking survivor” bites the dust: […]
[…] Article link is below: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/06/04/chong-kim-the-woman-whose-allegedly-true-story-served-as-the-basis-for-megan-griffiths-film-eden-revealed-to-be-a-fraud http://therealpornwikileaks.com/surprise-alleged-trafficking-survivor-chong-kim-revealed-liar-thief-… […]
I was the first person who started reporting I found issues with Chong’s story. I have answered 1,000’s of calls to our phone at Sex Workers Anonymous. This is a hotline where people can when they have decided they want to retire from the sex industry and need some emotional support to transition out, as well as where people call when they suspected “real” trafficking that was opened in 1987 long before this crazy “anti-trafficking” movement started in 2008 when President Bush announced that grants were being made available for the first time in history for “faith based” groups to… Read more »
[…] Parreira tweeted Bamboo Bridges, the “anti-trafficking” non-profit in Las Vegas that promoted Chong Kim and organized a screening of the film, Eden, which is based on Chong Kim’s false story of being sex-trafficked in […]
To be fair, how many of you read Breaking Out’s “expose”? I did, and found it to be underwhelming. No smoking gun at all. Most of the things they accuse really didn’t add up to damning evidence (such as the point where sometimes she referred to her recruiter as a man in “military garb” and sometimes as a man she thought was a “Marine” because of how she was dressed–is that REALLY an inconsistency?). Other times it wasn’t that her narrative had contradictions, it was that she didn’t rehearse each and every detail in every context in which she was… Read more »
You find a conviction for swindling a trafficking survivor to be “underwhelming”? How about the fact that the husband she claims was killed by the traffickers is actually alive and well? “[I]t wasn’t that her narrative had contradictions, it was that she didn’t rehearse each and every detail in every context” LOL You have it backwards. Did you ever see one of those cop movies where the suspect is under the lights in an interrogation room, and he says something like “How any times are we gonna go over this? I’ve told you this story ten times!”? One of the… Read more »
[…] demand for answers from recently outed fraud/professional victim Chong Kim and the organizations associated with her has given way to this: in a new press release, Kim […]
[…] With its gratuitous shots of teenage sex slaves living every day in their underwear, Eden could be seen as a dramatic sexploitation flick, but viewers can rest easy, because, the rationale goes, it’s all for a good cause. Anti-human trafficking groups receive a portion of the film’s proceeds, and the film’s producers make it clear that Eden is based on a true story. That story, however, has recently been called into question, and some activists claim that Eden may be based on an outright lie. […]
[…] And yet, these nuns still receive funding from the Irish government and their lies about sex workers are still accepted unquestioningly by the Irish media. In the United States, laws and old prejudices prevent the Catholic Church from gaining quite such a powerful hold, but nothing short of absolute exposure stops sociopaths like Somaly Mam or the woman whose supposedly “true” story the movie Eden was based on: […]
[…] Chong Kim sex trafficking fraud – lying is common with sex trafficking […]
[…] Another “sex trafficking survivor” bites the dust: […]
While I don’t doubt Chong is not a sex trafficking survivor – I am questioning how she got “exposed” the more I dig into this. http://traffickingandprostitutionservices.blogspot.com/2015/07/kamala-harris-us-attorney-for-california.html