East Orange, New Jersey Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Trafficking Minors for Prostitution

CAMDEN, NJ—Amin Sharif was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison today for his involvement in an enterprise which operated in New Jersey and elsewhere and employed both women and minor girls as prostitutes, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Sharif, 36, of East Orange, N.J., previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to transport minors in interstate commerce for the purposes of prostitution. He entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez, who also imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Sharif, who went by the street name “Goldie,” admitted that between 2005 until his arrest in May 2009, he operated a prostitution enterprise in New Jersey and elsewhere, acting as a pimp employing both minor girls and adult women to work as prostitutes. Sharif controlled the activities of the women and girls working for him, who gave him the money they made from preforming sexual acts on customers. Sharif used the Internet to advertise the prostitutes on websites such as Craigslist. He also used websites such as MySpace and Localhookupz.com to recruit girls to work as prostitutes for him.

In May 2005, Sharif recruited a woman in Wisconsin and brought her to Atlantic City, N.J., to work as a prostitute, as well as another woman and the three minor girls. While in Atlantic City, Sharif advertised the women and girls on Craigslist. Sharif also had the women who worked for him pass out business cards and flyers to advertise their services.

Between December 2007 and April 11, 2008, Sharif operated an after-hours house of prostitution in Linden, N.J. In April 2009, Sharif and a co-conspirator took three minor girls from Newark, N.J. to Wisconsin to work as prostitutes. While in Wisconsin, Sharif advertised the minor girls on Craigslist.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez sentenced Sharif to serve 15 years of supervised release. Sharif has been detained since his arrest on May 15, 2009.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward in Newark, for the investigation leading to today’s sentence. He also thanked investigators with the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office and officers with the Atlantic City Police Department for their important roles.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason M. Richardson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.

Defense counsel: Christopher O’Malley, Esq., Camden