BOSTON MAN SENTENCED ON CHILD PROSTITUTION CHARGES

WASHINGTON – Victor Diaz, 24, a resident of East Boston, was sentenced today to 51 months in prison after a federal jury in Boston convicted him of conspiring to engage in a child prostitution scheme, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Matthew W. Friedrich and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan for the District of Massachusetts announced.

Diaz was convicted on Feb. 4, 2008, after a week-long jury trial before U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris of the District of Massachusetts. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Saris also ordered Diaz to serve two years of supervised release.

Diaz and his niece, Evelyn Diaz, were charged with conspiring to sex traffic a minor between April 2004 and April 2005. At trial, the government proved that between approximately July 2003 and May 2005, Evelyn Diaz operated an escort service that was advertised in multiple publications and on the Internet. The escort service sent individuals, including minors, on prostitution calls in and around Boston. Victor Diaz assisted in the operation by driving adults and a minor to whom he and Evelyn Diaz are related to prostitution calls.

Evelyn Diaz pleaded guilty in January 2007 to two counts of transporting a minor to engage in prostitution and three counts of sex trafficking of children, in addition to the conspiracy charge. On April 27, 2007, she was sentenced to serve nine years in federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn and Trial Attorney Wendy Waldron of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). The case was investigated by the FBI, the Boston Police Department, the Cambridge Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police.

The case was part of the Innocence Lost Initiative, a cooperative effort between the FBI, CEOS and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to prevent and prosecute child prostitution.