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Naperville Man Charged with Sex Trafficking
A 36-year-old Naperville man has been arrested for allegedly forcing women to engage in commercial sex acts and brutally abusing them if they wouldn’t comply with his orders.
BENJAMIN BIANCOFIORI, 36, used the promise of financial security to entice women into performing commercial sex acts on his behalf, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Biancofiori ran his sex-trafficking operation primarily out of his townhouse in Naperville, the complaint states.
The complaint alleges that Biancofiori often beat and punched the women, and that he arranged for one of his victims to be returned to him at gunpoint after she tried to run away. Biancofiori kept a vast majority of the proceeds earned by the women, the complaint states.
Biancofiori was arrested Wednesday in Colorado and charged with one count of sex trafficking by means of force, fraud and coercion. The charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The complaint states that once Biancofiori enticed the victims to work for him, he would post their information in commercial sex advertisements on Backpage.com. He then arranged for the women to travel to meet clients at various locations in the Chicago area, the complaint states.
The investigation into Biancofiori’s sex-trafficking operation was a collaborative effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Chicago Office of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. Substantial assistance was also provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, the Denver office of the FBI, the Carol Stream Police Department and the Naperville Police Department.
Biancofiori’s recruitment of victims often involved online messaging services, including Facebook. For the past several weeks, Biancofiori had been traveling in the western U.S., according to the complaint, and allegedly advertised one of his victims on Backpage.com while in Phoenix and Denver in March.
The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Abigail Peluso and Erika Csicsila. An initial appearance in federal court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled for Biancofiori.
Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Category: Sex Crimes|Human Trafficking|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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