Miami Man Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Sex Tourism and Child Pornography Offenses

WASHINGTON – Miami resident Kent Frank was sentenced to 40 years in prison on sex tourism and child pornography charges, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today.

Federal District Judge Adalberto Jordan also ordered Frank to pay a $25,000 fine and serve 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.

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 Jan. 1, 2004, arrest of Frank in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by the Cambodian National Police (CNP), on debauchery charges. The CNP found 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 case was investigated by agents Gary Phillips and Taekuk Cho in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Attache Office in Bangkok, Thailand, and George Rodriguez and Shawn Newton in the ICE office in Miami. The anti-trafficking unit of the CNP provided substantial assistance in this case. 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. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Morales of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in Miami and Trial Attorney Wendy Waldron of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.