CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for violently sex trafficking multiple women over the course of a decade. A jury convicted Benjamin Biancofiori, 41, of Naperville, Ill. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber was unable to impose the prison sentence until this Thursday, after a hearing in federal court in Chicago.
Authorities won the conviction after proving that, from to , Biancofiori used false promises of assistance to entice at least 10 women into performing commercial sex acts. Biancofiori was accused of recruiting multiple victims, arranged for them to travel to meet customers in the Chicago area and other locations in the United States.
Prosecutors say he often beat and punched the women, and that he kept almost all of the money they received.
One of the women testified at his trial that he even withheld food and stole birth certificates to keep women captive. On one occasion, Biancofiori arranged for a victim to be returned to him at gunpoint after she tried to leave him. Prosecutors even said one woman urinated on herself after the beating Biancofiori gave her.
Prosecutors had sought life in prison due to Biancofiori's extensive criminal history. This was not Biancofiori's first major run-in with law enforcement. Nearly 25 years ago, while he was a teenager attending Wheaton North High School, Biancofiori was given a second chance that made national headlines and was highlighted as a stunning story of forgiveness and compassion. The story was even featured in an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show. In September , David Kinkley, a year-old sophomore at Wheaton North High School, was at a friend's home when he received a call from Biancofiori - also a student at Wheaton North, at the time - who offered him a ride to the bank to deposit money Kinkley had made waiting tables.
