LYNN — Anthony Coleman, 36, of Lynn, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for benefitting financially from trafficking two women for sex and both knowingly persuading and coercing them to travel to another state to engage in prostitution, United States Attorney Leah B. Foley’s office announced.
Coleman, whose 12-year sentence will then be followed by three years of supervised release, has been ordered to pay $77,000 in restitution.
Coleman’s tactics included having his victims move in with him and then both posted and controlled commercial sex advertisements online for them, for them. He provided them scripts, negotiated payment and the terms with buyers, and then proceeded to transport his victims to hotels and other places. The victims were required to give Coleman all the money they made, and he regularly coerced them into having sex with him as well.
In 2020, Coleman had been targeting victims who were unemployed or had lost their jobs during the pandemic. That March, he recruited and forced one victim to engage in sexual acts with 10-16 clients per day and took in all of the profits. He also took her to Florida multiple times to engage in commercial sex and was physically abusive, and even held her underwater and threatened to drown her.
Around March and April of that year, Coleman then recruited another victim and convinced her to come live with him after she was kicked out of her home. Unable to get a job due to business closures during the pandemic, the victim then began engaging in commercial sex for Coleman and was persuaded by him to travel to California in May of 2020 for commercial sex. When the victim left him, Coleman proceeded to threaten her, saying he’d hurt her mother and her sibling.
Last December, Coleman pleaded guilty to two counts of benefitting financially from trafficking and two counts of knowingly persuading and coercing a person to travel to engage in prostitution. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2024 and then was arrested in April. He had remained in federal custody ever since, and in December he pleaded guilty to the charges.
According to Foley’s office, both the Massachusetts State Police and the Revere and Cambridge Police Departments assisted in the investigation.
