Escort agency indicted amid allegations of money laundering

By Christine Duhaime | November 20th, 2012

Escort Agency indicted

New York’s attorney general has indicted several corporations and 19 people in connection with an alleged prostitution and money laundering operation in New York and New Jersey that provided escort services and drugs. Several of the people indicted included clients who used the services, escorts, chauffeurs, den keepers and the shareholders and managers of the corporations.

Clients who hired escorts, some of whom were indicted and many of whom were not, are accused of being co-conspirators in the criminal enterprise by virtue of the fact that they shared a common purpose of engaging in, and profiting from, criminal conduct.

According to the indictment, in order to launder the proceeds of crime, the corporate defendant, Somad Enterprises Inc., set up numerous subsidiaries that purported to provide services such as acupuncture, antique sales and party planning, in order to divert prostitution revenues through those entities and to create false business records to open bank accounts, obtain merchant codes from credit card companies and create invoices and employment records.

The authorities seized approximately $3.5 million in cash from the escort agency and freed two women who were being forcibly trafficked for sex.

The specific charges include enterprise corruption for operating a criminal enterprise, namely a prostitution-based money laundering enterprise, money laundering and falsifying business records. The so-called “lady pimp”, Jay King, is alleged to have been the brains of the operation.

She allegedly provided cocaine and Viagra to men as part of a package deal for prostitution services.

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