Final Defendant Pleads Guilty to His Role in International Conspiracy Involving the Forced Labor of Eastern European Women in Detroit-Area Exotic Dance Clubs
DETROIT—The Justice Department announced today that Veniamin Gonikman, 56, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ukraine, pleaded guilty in federal court in Detroit, Michigan, for crimes related to an international conspiracy to compel Eastern European women to work in exotic dance clubs in the Detroit metropolitan area. Gonikman, who became a fugitive in 2005, was apprehended in Ukraine in January 2011. He is the ninth and final member of the charged conspiracy to be convicted.