A Naperville man who used violence to force women to prostitute themselves and then kept most of the money they were paid has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors say Benjamin Biancofiori, 41, oversaw a sex trafficking business from 2007 to 2016 in which he enticed multiple women into committing sex acts for money. He would arrange for them to travel throughout the Chicago area and other parts of the country to service customers and often “beat and punched them” to keep them in his employ, a U.S. Attorney’s Office report said.
“On one occasion, Biancofiori arranged for a victim to be returned to him at gunpoint after she tried to leave him,” the report said.
During his February 2018 jury trial, one woman testified that Biancofiori posted sex ads offering her services on Craigslist, drove her to appointments seven days a week and kept all the money she earned. He kept her supplied with heroin and controlled every aspect of her life, threatening to kill her and her family if she tried to leave, the woman said.
On one occasion she was punched so hard that she flew into a wall and wet her pants, she testified. He forced her to clean it up and then go back to work, she said. Another time, he knocked her to the floor, stomped on her and beat her with a towel rack, she said.
Biancofiori was convicted of sex trafficking and obstruction charges at his trial. U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber sentenced him to three decades in prison Thursday after a federal court hearing in Chicago.
The Naperville Police Department was cited for its assistance in the case as were the Carol Stream Police Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado and the FBI’s Denver Field Office.
Biancofiori’s co-defendants, Marcus Willis, of Wheaton, and Nathan Perez, of West Chicago, have pleaded guilty to working with Biancofiori and are awaiting sentencing.
baiduhai reporter Jason Meisner contributed.