Tag Archive: New York
September 30, 2021
ALBANY, NEW YORK – A grand jury yesterday returned a superseding indictment charging Christopher Thomas, age 38, of Colonie, New York, with crimes related to the sex trafficking of children and adults.
The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon, Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and New York State Police Superintendent Kevin Bruen.
The indictment charges Thomas with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking of a child, transportation of minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to transport an individual to engage in prostitution, and coercion and enticement.
Thomas is alleged to have recruited girls and women to engage in commercial sex at his direction and then provide him with the proceeds. Thomas is alleged to have used a website to advertise the girls and women for commercial sex in the Capital Region, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.
The charges in the superseding indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Thomas has been in custody since his arrest on May 12, 2020.
If convicted of all offenses, Thomas faces at least 10 years and up to life in prison. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.
This case is being investigated by the FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, and the New York State Police Troop G Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, with assistance from the Colonie Police Department, Vermont State Police, Burlington, Vermont Police Department, Albany Police Department, Albany County Sheriff’s Office, Town of Bethlehem Police Department, Capital Region Crime Analysis Center, and the New York State Intelligence Center. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shira Hoffman and Katherine Kopita.
Read this press release on the Department of Justice webpage.
January 29, 2021
ALBANY COUNTY, N.Y. (NewsNation Now) — People who dedicate their lives to helping victims of human trafficking and exploitation say it’s demanding work. Now, their mission has become even more difficult as misconceptions grow about what these crimes look like and who they impact.
Real and shocking stories of private islands and trafficked children have dominated recent headlines, along with viral internet conspiracy theories of a global faction of celebrity pedophiles. While all this goes on, human trafficking support agencies, like the Albany County Safe Harbour program in New York, say there are real examples of exploitation in our neighborhoods.
“We see it here in the Capital Region, in gangs,” said Nicole Consiglio, coordinator of Safe Harbour. “We also see parents trafficking their own children to feed a drug habit, or to pay their bills. It really does take on a lot of forms, and can happen anywhere at any time.”
Consiglio said both unproven conspiracies and large-scale Hollywood crimes can make parents unsuspecting of the commonplace dangers posed by traffickers.
“We don’t want that message to be lost in these stories that are out there to pull away and draw attention from what’s really going on here,” said Consiglio.
Viral internet theories have also muddied the messaging.
To read the full story by Giuliana Bruno on News Nation: Click Here
January 19, 2021
ALBANY COUNTY, N.Y. (NewsNation Now) — People who dedicate their lives to helping victims of human trafficking and exploitation say it’s demanding work. Now, their mission has become even more difficult as misconceptions grow about what these crimes look like and who they impact.
Real and shocking stories of private islands and trafficked children have dominated recent headlines, along with viral internet conspiracy theories of a global faction of celebrity pedophiles. While all this goes on, human trafficking support agencies, like the Albany County Safe Harbour program in New York, say there are real examples of exploitation in our neighborhoods.
“We see it here in the Capital Region, in gangs,” said Nicole Consiglio, coordinator of Safe Harbour. “We also see parents trafficking their own children to feed a drug habit, or to pay their bills. It really does take on a lot of forms, and can happen anywhere at any time.”
Consiglio said both unproven conspiracies and large-scale Hollywood crimes can make parents unsuspecting of the commonplace dangers posed by traffickers.
“We don’t want that message to be lost in these stories that are out there to pull away and draw attention from what’s really going on here,” said Consiglio.
Viral internet theories have also muddied the messaging.
QAnon dates back to 2017. The anonymous online poster shares claims about a ring of power players that control Hollywood, and they set their sights on different celebrities. One viral theory suggested Oprah Winfrey was arrested for involvement in a sex trafficking ring, a theory she was forced to debunk in March.
“What we see a lot is these stories that have some shock value to them. They’re those celebrity stories. People click on the headline,” said Consiglio. “There’s disturbing imagery. It gets people emotionally charged.”
Consiglio said having an emotional reaction isn’t a bad thing, but when it is in response to false claims or conspiracies, it impacts the ability of agencies to effectively respond to victims and help them transition out of their abusive situation.
Megan Cutter is the director of the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
“What we’ve seen, unfortunately, through the National Human Trafficking hotline, is an increase in reports that are about viral information that someone’s seen on social media, or on the news,” said Cutter. “And people are reporting it without having any connection to that situation.”
Cutter agrees that not everyone who calls has bad intentions, but the misinformation places stress on their hotline and can be confusing to the people in need who are choosing whether or not to pick up the phone and dial.
“The biggest thing we’re worried about is the impact that misinformation and viral content can have on victims and survivors that are trying to reach out for help,” she said.
Ahead of NewsNation’s investigation, anchor Aaron Nolan spoke with Elizabeth Melendez Fisher Good, the co-founder and CEO of anti-sex trafficking organization The Selah Way Foundation.
To read/watch the full story by Giuliana Bruno on News Nation Now: Click Here
October 14, 2019
ALBANY — New York is helping survivors of sexual abuse, stalking and human trafficking keep their addresses under wraps.
A new law signed Thursday by Gov. Cuomo allows victims and survivors to keep their addresses hidden from perpetrators by using a substitute address in place of their actual home, school or work address.
“Victims of heinous crimes like sexual assault and human trafficking should not have to live in constant fear that their assailant could find and potentially hurt them again,” Cuomo said. “By signing this legislation into law we will help protect survivors from further abuse by shielding their address from public view and hopefully provide a measure of comfort as they move forward with their lives.”
The measure expands the New York Department of State’s existing address confidentiality program that already covers domestic violence victims. But those who have been victims of sexual offenses, stalking or human trafficking were not covered by the program.
To read the full story by Denis Slattery on New York Daily News: Click Here
May 16, 2019
Oneonta native Dr. Joseph P. Campbell Jr. presented on the use of technology in detecting human trafficking at the Alexander F. Carson lecture series hosted by A.O. Fox Hospital at the Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center in Oneonta on Monday.
Campbell leads the artificial intelligence technology and systems group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, one of 46 agencies to collaboratively develop Memex, a program of the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to support the White House’s 2014 big data initiative to overcome the limitations of general search engines.
“Human trafficking is a startlingly large economy and is rapidly growing,” Campbell said. “The scale of illicit activity conducted online greatly outpaced the tools traditionally used by investigators to combat human trafficking. This is a tool investigators can use to gain situational awareness about the players in the online sex economy.”
Memex has been used by the office of the District Attorney of New York since 2014, Campbell said, and has since transformed its ability to investigate trafficking arrests from less than 5% to 60% in 2017.
“Unlike what you see in movies with artificial intelligence, we’re not making robots, we’re not replacing people,” Campbell said. “Instead we’re augmenting our humans to give them superhuman performance to deal with a super difficult problem.”
Human trafficking is a large and growing illicit economy increasingly mediated online, Campbell said, and the high volume and velocity of online sex advertising makes understanding the economy very difficult.
The second-largest advertising site in the world, Backpage, was accessed by users in all major metropolitan areas in more than 100 countries and mentioned in 73% of child trafficking reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Campbell said. More than 10 million* ads with 500,000 unique phone numbers were posted between March and August 2017, and the site was valued $500 million when it was seized by the Department of Justice in April 2018, according to Campbell.
The void left in its wake was quickly filled by a multitude of similar platforms, Campbell said, making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to track victims and perpetrators.
A computer can learn to perform tasks without being explicitly programmed to do so by reviewing large swaths of data, similar to the way a household smart speaker can pick up on and differentiate the voices of its users, Campbell said, and “the computer processing that we refer to as artificial intelligence can then process the data to understand and extract patterns and build models during the training phase.”
To read the full story by Sarah Eams on The Daily Star: Click Here
April 29, 2019
[Episcopal News Service] On the morning of April 6, the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City became more than a transit hub – it became a site of prayer and activism that connected the Stations of the Cross to the plight of sex trafficking victims.
“The cross is a metaphor for sex trafficking,” said the Rev. Adrian Dannhauser, associate rector at Manhattan’s Church of the Incarnation and chair of the Episcopal Diocese of New York Task Force Against Human Trafficking. Sex trafficking victims often face continued violence, social stigma and a loss of agency in an unsupportive system.
Dannhauser and a group of some 30 faith-based activists – many of whom wore various hues of purple in support of sex trafficking victims and in recognition of Lent – gathered for a traveling model of the Lenten tradition, which connected the Stations of the Cross to elements of sex trafficking throughout New York City.
Praying the Stations of the Cross during Lent is a centuries-old tradition that focuses Christians on the path of suffering that Jesus followed to his ultimate sacrifice on the cross, and for many Christians, that story is retold in solemn tones inside the walls of a church or chapel.
Organized by the Episcopal Diocese of New York Task Force Against Human Trafficking, Stations of the Cross for Sex Trafficking Survivors followed seven stations, abbreviated from the usual 14, across three of the city’s boroughs. Each stop reflected Jesus’ journey on Good Friday and the burden of commercial sexual exploitation, featuring opening devotion and liturgy from faith leaders, as well as speeches from trafficking survivors. Attendees visited a shelter and service provider for homeless youth, a strip club, an area of the Bronx known for street prostitution, a human trafficking intervention court in Queens, John F. Kennedy International Airport and a hotel in Brooklyn known for commercial sex.
Fittingly, the Port Authority Bus Terminal served as the first station. Located just blocks from Times Square, the Port Authority is the nation’s largest and busiest bus terminal. It’s open 24 hours a day and, because of its location in a tourist district and its nearly 200,000 daily visitors, the terminal has long been a hot spot for traffickers, pimps and others who scout for vulnerable women to coerce into prostitution.
To read the full story on Episcopal News Service: Click Here
April 11, 2019
March 8 is United Nations-designated International Women’s Day, which has roots in the fight for better and safer working conditions in the U.S. This year, many global corporations are marking the day with events celebrating women’s education and parity in the workplace.
While many professional women are exalted, let’s consider thousands who aren’t, including those who are commercially sexually exploited and trafficked right here in New York City.
The charging of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution after twice visiting a Jupiter, Fla. “rub and tug” massage parlor shone a bright light on a world of commercial sexual exploitation.
Astoundingly, according to the anti-trafficking group Polaris, the U.S. is home to some 9,000 such establishments, and experts say many of the women who staff them are exploited and trafficked.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as modern-day slavery involving use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain labor or commercial sex acts.
That’s what’s happening in many massage parlors across the U.S., says Irina Tsukerman, a New York-based human rights attorney. “There’s no way to know without investigation whether a place is legitimate, or if someone is a trafficking victim in any individual case, [but] absolutely, a lot of them have been abused and deceived.”
The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements raised awareness of sexual harassment in Hollywood and beyond. But the outrage for women on the lowest rungs of the economic and educational ladder is far harder to find.
Shandra Woworuntu of Queens-based Mentari USA, who is dedicated to helping women escape commercial sexual exploitation (advocates reject words like “prostitution” as dehumanizing), and receive job training, survived the massage parlor underworld herself.
Trafficked at age 24 from Indonesia with the promise of a job in the hotel industry, Woworuntu was held at gunpoint and sexually trafficked in “many places up and down I-95.”
To read the full story by Heather Robinson on The Daily News: Click Here
