Binghamton Man Sentenced in Child Sex Trafficking Ring

Antonio Ballard, 26, of Binghamton, New York, is headed to federal prison for 210 months after being convicted of running a child sex trafficking ring that exploited three underage girls for commercial prostitution. The sentence, handed down following a March 2016 trial, includes 20 years of supervised release and mandates Ballard register as a sex offender for life.

Federal prosecutors revealed that from August to December 2014, Ballard orchestrated a prostitution operation out of an apartment in Broome County, where he recruited, harbored, transported, and controlled three minor girls for the purpose of sex acts with paying clients. He took a 50% cut of all proceeds, providing security and the location where the crimes occurred—profiting off the exploitation of children.

Ballard didn’t stop at pimping out the victims—he turned them into commodities online. He photographed the underage girls and personally helped post advertisements on Backpage.com, the notorious online classifieds site frequently used for illegal sex trade. Those posts lured clients to the apartment, fueling a cycle of abuse and financial gain.

Prosecutors emphasized the calculated nature of the operation: Ballard wasn’t a low-level player. He managed schedules, enforced control, and used digital tools to expand his reach. Each post on Backpage was a digital trap, placing vulnerable girls in the crosshairs of predators while padding his own pockets.

The case was a joint effort by the FBI’s Albany Division, the New York State Police, and the Binghamton Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric led the prosecution, securing convictions on all eight counts tied to sex trafficking and forced prostitution of minors—a rare win in cases where victims are often too traumatized to testify.

This conviction falls under Project Safe Childhood, a federal initiative targeting online child exploitation. Authorities say cases like Ballard’s expose how easily predators weaponize the internet to traffic minors. For more on the initiative, visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

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