Florida Man Indicted for Sex Trafficking Enterprise

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA – A 46-year-old Miami Beach man has been charged with operating a sex trafficking enterprise that brought foreign students from Kazakhstan into the country under false pretenses.

Jeffrey Jason Cooper, a 46-year-old Miami Beach resident, was indicted in an 11-count indictment in the Southern District of Florida on charges of sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking by fraud, wire fraud, importation of aliens for prostitution or immoral purposes, and use of a facility of interstate commerce to operate a prostitution enterprise.

According to allegations in the indictment, Cooper used the State Department’s Summer Work Travel Program to recruit foreign students from Kazakhstan, promising them clerical jobs in a fictitious yoga studio. Instead, he advertised them to customers of his prostitution and erotic massage enterprise.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and Cooper is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. If convicted of sex trafficking, Cooper faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. The wire fraud charges carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Importing or attempting to import an alien for immoral purposes carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and using a facility of interstate commerce to promote an unlawful activity carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Miami-Dade Police Department, and the North Bay Village, Florida, Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth M. Schlessinger of the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Matthew T. Grady of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.

The Southern District of Florida was selected as one of six Phase I Anti-Trafficking Coordination Teams (ACTeams) through the interagency ACTeam Initiative of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Labor. Designated ACTeams focus on developing high-impact human trafficking investigations and prosecutions involving forced labor, international sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion through interagency collaboration among federal prosecutors and federal investigative agencies.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov

Cooper’s case highlights the dangers of human trafficking and the importance of collaborating between law enforcement agencies to bring perpetrators to justice.

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