Press Release
MIAMI MAN SENTENCED TO FORTY YEARS IN PRISON FOR SEX TOURISM AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHY OFFENSES
July 31, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney of the Southern District of Florida, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division DOJ, and Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced that Miami resident Kent Frank, 51, was sentenced today to forty (40) years in prison on sex tourism and child pornography charges. U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan also ordered Frank to pay a $25,000 fine and serve fifteen (15) years of supervised release.
On April 5, 2007, a federal jury in Miami found Frank guilty of eight counts of child exploitation offenses related to his sexual abuse of three young females in Cambodia. Frank was convicted of four counts of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. The jury also found Frank guilty of three counts of purchasing a minor with the intent to produce child pornography and one count of traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
According to the evidence, Frank engaged in commercial sex acts with three underage girls during two trips to Cambodia between September 2003 and January 2004. Evidence showed that Frank paid underage girls in Cambodia money for sex and to pose for pornographic pictures.
The prosecution stemmed from the January 1, 2004, arrest of Frank in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by the Cambodian National Police (CNP), on debauchery charges. The CNP found the four females, including the three minors that Frank was convicted of exploiting, coming out of Frank's hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on the day of Frank's arrest.
The conviction demonstrates the commitment of both U.S. law enforcement and the anti-trafficking unit of the CNP to combat the sexual exploitation of children in Cambodia. The non-governmental organization AFESIP (Agir pour les Femmes En Situation Précaire, or Acting for Women in Distressing Situations), which sheltered the four females after they were found at Frank's hotel, has also been instrumental in efforts to protect and care for minor victims of prostitution.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative work of the Bangkok and Miami offices of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Cambodian National Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric E. Morales of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Wendy Waldron of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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