Booker for Prostitution Ring Sentenced to Probation for Prostitution and Money Laundering Offenses

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that TEMEKA RACHELLE LEWIS was sentenced today to one year of probation for her role in conspiring to promote prostitution and to launder the proceeds of prostitution crimes in connection with the international prostitution and money-laundering ring Emperors Club VIP. In addition, the Court ordered forfeiture of the proceeds of her illegal activity. The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge SHIRA A. SCHEINDLIN in Manhattan federal court.

According to the felony Information and other documents previously filed in Manhattan federal court:

From November 2005 until March 2008, LEWIS participated in a conspiracy to promote, manage, and carry on an illegal prostitution business, to transport women, and to induce women to travel, in interstate commerce with the intent that the women engage in unlawful prostitution. Specifically, among other things, LEWIS arranged over the phone in January 2008 for a prostitute to meet a man at a hotel in New York, New York, and on another occasion, for a prostitute to travel from New York to Washington, D.C. to meet a man in his hotel room. LEWIS also conspired to launder the customers' illegal payments for prostitution services by encouraging customers to make the payments to a purported consulting company, in order to disguise the nature of the payments.

LEWIS, 33, of Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty on May 14, 2008, pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the Government.

Mr. DASSIN praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigative Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

Assistant United States Attorneys BOYD M. JOHNSON III and DANIEL L. STEIN are in charge of the prosecution.

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