Law Enforcement Seized Website Used to Run Prostitution Business
Baltimore, Maryland – Xavier Lee, a/k/a “X,” age 41, of Elkton, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to the federal charge of sex trafficking of a minor.
The guilty plea was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; Chief Matthew J. Donnelly of the Elkton Police Department; Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal Awad; and Cecil County State’s Attorney James Dellmyer.
According to his plea agreement, for the past decade Lee has operated an illicit prostitution business for financial gain, including operating the website, www.wehavefuntimes.com, where Lee posted advertisements of women whom he made available for commercial sexual acts with paying customers. That website was seized by the FBI, in conjunction with the United States Attorney’s Office and the Maryland State Police. For a time, Lee also operated a different website, where he offered a subscription pornographic service to paying customers.
As detailed in the plea agreement, Lee admitted that he had sexual contact with Minor Victim 5, beginning when Minor Victim 5 was 14 years old. Lee recorded his sexual contact with Minor Victim 5 when Minor Victim 5 was 15 and 16 years old. Investigators recovered eight separate videos from Lee’s electronic devices, each of which had been recorded by Lee and each of which documented the sexual abuse of Minor Victim 5, depicting Minor Victim 5 engaged in sexual acts with Lee or with another adult man. Lee admitted that he was aware of Minor Victim 5’s true age.
For approximately the past five years, Lee’s prostitution business was run almost exclusively out of a hotel located in Elkton, Maryland. Not only did Lee primarily use the same hotel in Elkton to prostitute women, Lee always used the same room to prostitute women. Lee ran his prostitution business according to a set pattern and protocol. Lee posted advertisements of women whom he made available for commercial sex acts with paying customers. The “profiles” of the females whom Lee was prostituting included photographs, descriptions, and fictitious names. The website also listed the cost of prostitution appointments, described services that were available, and allowed customers to post comments.
According to the plea agreement, a typical day proceeded as follows: Lee arrived at the hotel in Elkton at around 11:00 a.m. with a group of women in his car whom he would prostitute that day, rented his usual room, and if he had sufficient business, additional room(s) from the hotel staff. Lee remained on the premises of the hotel throughout the day, met with customers in the room as they arrived and collected the money due from the customer, then sat in his car in the parking lot. After the last customer, Lee and the women left, typically by 6:00 p.m. Lee often transported the women whom he prostituted to the hotel in Elkton, including transporting them across state lines to work for his prostitution business.
Finally, Lee admitted that in 2013, including in or about April 2013, Lee also had Minor Victim 4, who was sixteen to seventeen years old, do prostitution dates at Lee’s direction. These prostitution dates were arranged through Lee’s website. Lee was aware of Minor Victim 4’s true age during the time because Minor Victim 4 advised Lee of her true age.
Lee faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in federal prison for sex trafficking of a minor. U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander has scheduled sentencing for Lee on April 30, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.
The case was investigated by the FBI-led Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force, created in 2010 to combat child prostitution, with members from10 state and federal law enforcement agencies. The Task Force coordinates with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Maryland State Police Child Recovery Unit to identify missing children being advertised online for prostitution.
MCETF partners with the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking while identifying and prosecuting offenders. Members include federal, state and local law enforcement, as well as victim service providers and local community members. For more information about the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, please visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/md/priorities_human.html.
Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the FBI, the Maryland State Police, the Elkton Police Department, the Anne Arundel County Police Department, and the Cecil County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel A. Loveland, Jr., Adam K. Ake, and Ayn B. Ducao, who are prosecuting the case
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