360 DigiTech, Inc. Securities Fraud Investigation
Investigation Deadline: December 1, 2023
August 27, 2026
News
Court Allows Human Trafficking Claims Against Shen Yun to Proceed
Berger Montague, a leading national plaintiffs’ law firm, announces that a federal judge has largely denied motions to dismiss claims that Shen Yun Performing Arts, Inc. and other defendants subjected children and young adults to forced labor and did not pay them proper wages.
“This ruling means these survivors will finally have the opportunity to prove their case,” said Executive Shareholder Michael Dell’Angelo. “For years these performers were recruited as children, isolated from the outside world, and forced to work under threat of serious harm to themselves and their families — and a federal court has now confirmed that those allegations can move forward into discovery.”
In an August 18, 2026, opinion U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern allowed claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”) and the New York Labor Law to proceed to discovery against Shen Yun and its affiliated schools, compound, and leaders. The Court also allowed a beneficiary liability claim to proceed against International Bank of Chicago, finding that Plaintiffs plausibly alleged the bank knew or should have known that Shen Yun was engaged in forced labor. The case, Chang v. Shen Yun Performing Arts, Inc., is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit, filed by four lead plaintiffs on behalf of dancers and musicians that worked for Shen Yun, alleges that Shen Yun recruited children as young as eleven (11) to move to Shen Yun’s compound and perform as dancers and musicians, powering a major commercial enterprise that enriched Shen Yun’s leaders. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants isolated performers, including their families. They prohibited performers from leaving the compound, confiscated their passports, prohibited them from accessing the internet and any “unapproved” media, denied them medical care, and forced them to work 13-16-hour days for little or no pay.
The proposed TVPRA class includes individuals who worked as dancers and musicians and lived at the Dragon Springs compound. The proposed New York Labor Law class includes individuals who performed in New York as dancers, musicians, emcees, or set designers for Shen Yun.
Berger Montague is co-counsel with Farra & Wang PLLC.
Additional Information
- Read the Court’s Opinion and Order on Defendants’ motions to dismiss: Chang v. Shen Yun Performing Arts, Inc., No. 24-CV-08980 (PMH) docket
- Read Berger Montague’s original announcement of the lawsuit: Child Trafficking and Other Allegations Made Against Shen Yun in Recent Lawsuit
- Learn more about Berger Montague’s Human Rights and Forced Labor practice
Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. With more than $2.4 billion in 2025 post-trial judgments alone, the Firm is a leader in the fields of complex litigation, antitrust, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among many other practice areas. For over 55 years, Berger Montague has played leading roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago; Malvern, PA; Minneapolis; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto, Canada; Washington, DC, and Wilmington, DE.
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