Friend of yours Alex?
After apologizing to victim, accused pimp gets jail time
Friday, March 11, 2005BY RUSSELL BEN-ALI
nj.com
NEW YORK -- In a final attempt to convince a federal judge of his remorse, Lev Trakhtenberg turned to the woman who had accused him of forcing her into a life of prostitution and strip club dancing.
"I am ashamed," Trakhtenberg, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia, told U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote. Then, turning toward his accuser, Anna Boudekova, he said, "I am ashamed. ... I'm sorry, Anna. I've made awful mistakes and terribly wrong choices."
Trakhtenberg, who pleaded guilty in November to a single charge of conspiracy to commit extortion for forcing Boudekova into prostitution in 1999, was sentenced yesterday to 42 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, Cote ordered him to pay $10,000 in restitution to his victim, an amount that includes her legal fees and income losses.
Trakhtenberg, who is a defendant at the center of a separate case in Newark involving human trafficking and forced labor, was indicted on the New York charge last August.
He was accused of forcing Boudekova into prostitution after she failed to pay the $200 daily fee he and his associates attempted to extort from her earnings as a dancer in a strip club. Trakhtenberg insisted she owed the money to repay transportation costs to the United States and other fees he had advanced her, a claim she denied yesterday.
"The money went one way, from me to Mr. Trakhtenberg, and the threats started when it slowed down," Boudekova told the court prior to the sentence.
Before sentencing, defense attorney David Lewis asked the judge to consider Trakhtenberg's record in his Brooklyn community and the letters of support from friends and associates who cited his business, DGL Enterprises Inc., which promoted Russian cultural events, and his activism on behalf of Soviet Jews.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz, a prosecutor in both the New York and New Jersey cases, argued for a sentencing range of 51 months to 63 months in prison.
"I just feel that anything the defendant has done in the community just doesn't compare to what he's done to the victim in this case," she said.
Cote acknowledged the letters of support, but also noted Trakhtenberg's personal attacks on the victim -- which he admitted to in written submissions prior to sentencing -- and his inability yesterday to provide exact details of his crime.
"It is still difficult for you to articulate to me precisely what you did," Cote told Trakhtenberg. "It is difficult for you, perhaps, to articulate to yourself, precisely what you did."
Still, Cote used a sentencing range of 37 months to 46 months, lowering the amount of time because Trakhtenberg showed remorse at yesterday's hearing.
In the Newark case, authorities said, Trakhtenberg filed false visa applications to smuggle at least 25 Russian women into the U.S., claiming they were performers in Russian cultural events he'd legally promoted over the years.
FBI agents arrested Trakhtenberg in Brooklyn in August 2002. Agents also detained his wife, Viktoriya I'Lina, and Sergey Malchikov, a former boxer who drove the women to strip clubs throughout central New Jersey. Each was charged in federal court in Newark with conspiracy, forced labor, trafficking with respect to forced labor and conspiracy to commit extortion.
Authorities said the three threatened the women with violence, or to harm their families back in Russia if they did not dance nude six days a week in several central New Jersey locations. They were forced to perform nude lap dances and were ordered to turn over $1,200 each week from their earnings, whether they made that much or not.
Last December, Trakhtenberg pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to conspiracy to commit forced labor, visa fraud and immigration violations. Malchikov is cooperating with authorities and is expected to testify against I'Lina, who has opted to stand trial.
Trakhtenberg will likely be sentenced in Newark next month, authorities said. |
