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Monday, April 23, 2012

NY - Livery cab hooker ring used 'indentured' sex workers

Six livery car drivers wait for their arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday. They are charged with participating in a sex trafficking ring.

A father-and-son pimp team were busted for running a multimillion-a-year sex ring - branding women with degrading tattoos and employing livery car drivers to shuttle them around, according to an indictment from the Manhattan district attorney's office.

"This as not your typical father-and-son business," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, whose department partnered with prosecutors to crush the ring.

Vincent George Sr. (“Vee), 55, of Queens taught his son Vincent George Jr. (“King Koby”), 33, of Allentown, Pa., the ways of the flesh trade over the last 10 years, prosecutors charge.

The pimp daddy and his pimp son set up a phony business, Grip Entertainment, to launder their illicit money.

The two ventured out in the city night after night offering business cards to men on the street and in hotels, bars and the back of their livery cars.

The women were kept subservient with degrading tattoos, according to a source. One woman had a bar code inked on her neck; another had a crown with a $ tattooed on her pubic bone.

The women earned $200 to $500 per customer, but were given only enough money a night for food and essentials and were forced to turn all their earnings over to the Georges.

One prostitute earned half a million dollars last year alone, according to court records. Some of the money was transferred to offshore accounts, according to prosecutors.

They were threatened with violence if they failed to bring in big money, according to the district attorney.

"Prostituted women, men and children are often physically abused, psychologically coerced, and fearful of reporting their abuse to authorities," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.

Investigators, using tapped phones at Rikers Island, were able to identify three woman, who agreed to cooperate.

The two men were busted on April 5, driving through Allentown from Buffalo en route to the city with a woman they had recruited.

A joint taskforce of NYPD, prosecutors and the feds seized 10 cars and more than $200,000 cash.

The two Georges were charged with sex trafficking, promoting prostitution and money laundering.

In addition to the father-and-son team, livery car drivers Oabari Gaber, 57, Theo Jones, 52, David Lombardo, 56, Assaf Nahomove, , Sokol Perkaj, 41, and Ausama Ahamad, 37, were also charged with promoting prostitution.

Jones's lawyer, Bob Walter, said his client was just trying to help his passengers.

"What livery car driver doesn't know where you can get a girl?"

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