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Livery Cab Drivers Accused Of Operating "Brothel On Wheels"
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 24, 2012
Modified Apr 24, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 24, 2012
Modified Apr 24, 2012
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Six livery cab drivers were indicted yesterday on charges of Promoting Prostitution as part of an alleged "brothel on wheels" run by an alleged father-son pimp team. Vincent George, Sr., 55, and Vincent George, Jr., 33, are accused of pimping out prostitutes for years, paying the indicted drivers to escort the women while they performed sex acts in the back seats of their cars. The women would charge between $200-$500 per customer, but prosecutors say George and Son would keep almost all the money, rendering the prostitutes nearly destitute and dependent on the men for survival.
“This was not your typical father and son business," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters yesterday. "Vincent George Sr. and Vincent George Jr. exploited women, transporting them from Pennsylvania to johns in Midtown Manhattan." The Georges allegedly kept their victims subservient by "branding" them with degrading tattoos, each one representing the woman's street name. One of the woman had a tattoo of a bar code on the back of her neck, and the Post reports that at least three of the women had tattoos featuring the son’s nickname, “King Koby.”
The prostitutes trolled upscale hotel lobbies and the exteriors of strip clubs looking for johns, handing out business cards under fake names offering their services as “professional masseuses.” The victims were given quotas of money they were required to earn, and prosecutors say the alleged traffickers are accused of laundering the money by converting the cash into United States Postal Money Orders, and "by washing it through GRIP ENTERTAINMENT, a corporate entity they controlled and used to disguise and conceal the illegal source of the criminal proceeds."
One prostitute earned half a million dollars last year alone, according to court records obtained by the Daily News, which has a priceless photo of the indicted men sitting outside court trying to hide their faces. Investigators pursued George Sr. and son after phone calls made from Rikers Island came to their attention, and they persuaded three of the women to cooperate. George Sr. and George Jr. were arrested this week while transporting a young woman to Pennsylvania from Upstate New York to allegedly work for their operation.
As part of this investigation, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, along with the NYPD and federal partners, seized 10 vehicles, three houses in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and more than $200,000 from bank accounts. George Sr. and George Jr. are charged with Sex Trafficking, Money Laundering, and Promoting Prostitution. All the livery car drivers pleaded not guilty, and one of the driver's attorneys gets the "Lionel Hutz Award" for the quote he gave to the News: "What livery car driver doesn't know where you can get a girl?"
Tagged
livery cabs
prostitution
sex trafficking
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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