Naperville Man Charged with Violently Forcing Women to Engage in Prostitution

CHICAGO — A 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 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, 36, was arrested Wednesday in Colorado.  The complaint charges him with one count of sex trafficking by means of force, fraud and coercion.  An initial appearance in federal court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.

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.  Biancofiori recruited one of his victims through an online messaging service on Facebook, according to the complaint.

For the past several weeks Biancofiori has been traveling in the western U.S., according to the complaint.  Biancofiori allegedly advertised one of his victims on Backpage.com while in Phoenix and Denver in March.

The complaint was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and James D. Robnett, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.  Substantial assistance was 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.

The sex trafficking charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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.