Patel looked the other way as women were sexually abused, beaten.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: An Indian American motelier in New Orleans, Louisiana, Kanubhai Patel, 74, who also went by the names of ‘Mr. Kenny’ and ‘Pop’, has pleaded guilty to making money off a sex trafficking scheme operated from his seedy establishment, the Riviera Motel.
At Patel’s disreputable motel, multiple adult women were compelled to engage in prostitution, announced head of the Civil Rights Division Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Allen Polite Jr. of the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Patel, of Kenner, Louisiana, pleaded guilty to one count of benefitting financially from trafficking in persons.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate those who traffic in human beings or who benefit financially from human trafficking,” said Gupta, in a statement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “We will continue in our steadfast determination to bring to justice not only those who use force and coercion to exploit other human beings—but also those entities or individuals who knowingly profit from these depraved acts.”
Polite said that Patel “callously profited from a sex trafficking venture that used force, fraud and coercion to compel women to engage in commercial sex acts,” adding: “These crimes often pass without detection because victims live in fear from physical abuse, threats and other forms of coercion.”
According to evidence presented in court and documents filed in connection with the case, Patel acknowledged that, in his role as the former owner of the Riviera Motel, he regularly rented rooms to individuals who are charged as sex trafficking co-conspirators in connection with this case, knowing they were pimps who forced and coerced women to engage in prostitution. Patel admitted that although he never personally recruited, groomed or coerced any of the victims, he benefited financially from the sex trafficking operation.
Evidence presented at the plea hearing and court documents establish that Patel would charge the pimps and sex trafficking co-conspirators higher rates than other motel guests, and would open the motel’s gate to allow the women to bring customers back to the hotel.
Patel learned that members of the sex trafficking conspiracy physically assaulted women they prostituted, including one instance in which a co-conspirator brutally beat one woman with a large piece of wood while she screamed for help, leaving her with multiple lacerations and what appeared to be a broken arm.
Patel also saw the damage that a co-conspirator caused to a motel room during a beating, including a broken toilet, a damaged sink and blood on the walls. Patel agreed not to call the police after the co-conspirator paid him for the damage to the room. Patel also knew that, in furtherance of the sex trafficking scheme, members of the sex trafficking conspiracy would take the women’s identification cards from them. Patel saw the sex trafficking co-conspirators possessing the women’s identification cards and using them to rent hotels. Patel did not report them to police as long as they paid their rent.
At sentencing, Patel faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for benefiting financially from participating in a trafficking scheme involving control of victims’ identification documents.
Five other defendants have pleaded guilty in connection with the case. On June 25, 2014, Zacchaeus Taylor, 22, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking conspiracy and to transportation for purposes of prostitution. Laquentin Brown, 33, and Anthony Ellis, 26, subsequently pleaded guilty to the same charges on March 4, 2015, and April 20, 2015, respectively. All of these defendants are from Memphis, Tennessee, and each faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy and a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for transportation for prostitution.
On April 20, 2015, Duane Phillips, 29, and Christopher Williams, 30, also of Memphis, each pleaded guilty to sex trafficking conspiracy. They each face a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison.
Patel was charged in a second superseding indictment returned on October 3, 2014, along with Brown, Ellis, Philips, Williams and Granville Robinson, 26, also of Memphis. Taylor was charged separately on March 28, 2014. Of the seven defendants charged in connection with the case, six have entered guilty pleas and Robinson is awaiting trial. An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are innocent until proven guilty.
2 Comments
Deport all Patels back to India – Problem Solved. I believe if people with last name ‘Patel’ are investigated, most of them would be involved in some kind of fraud. Patels are quite greedy people when it comes to money. They would even sell their mother or wives to make money!
I hate all Patels, Brahmins, and white people, they’re all garbage.