Jeffrey Jason Cooper, Sex Trafficking, Florida 2017

A Miami Beach man was convicted of sex trafficking in connection with a human trafficking scheme targeting foreign university students.

Jeffrey Jason Cooper, 46, of Miami Beach, Florida, was convicted on all 11 counts for organizing a scheme to lure foreign university students into the United States under false pretenses of legitimate summer jobs, only to advertise the students to customers of his prostitution and erotic massage enterprise.

Cooper was convicted of sex trafficking and attempted sex trafficking by fraud, wire fraud, importation of persons for prostitution or immoral purposes and use of a facility of interstate commerce to operate a prostitution enterprise. A jury in the Southern District of Florida returned the verdict after four days of trial.

According to evidence presented in court, Cooper recruited foreign students from Kazakhstan through the State Department's J-1 Summer Work Travel Program, using false and fraudulent promises of clerical jobs in a fictitious yoga studio in order to bring the students into the United States. After the students arrived in Miami in May 2011, Cooper revealed that the yoga studio did not exist and that he expected the students to perform erotic massages and commercial sex acts as part of his prostitution and erotic massage enterprise.

The students were advertised to customers from June 2011 until they were recovered by law enforcement in August 2011.

Cooper faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, a fine of up to $2,750,000 and an order to pay mandatory restitution to the victims. U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida will sentence Cooper on Feb. 16, 2017.

Cooper's scheme was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), and other federal and international law enforcement agencies.

This case is a prime example of how human traffickers prey on vulnerable individuals seeking educational opportunities, only to exploit them for their own profit.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/florida-man-convicted-sex-trafficking-connection-human-trafficking-scheme-targeting-foreign