William D. Foster, 48, of Delray Beach, Ashleigh Holloway, 36, of Fort Lauderdale, and Hanah Chan, 30, of Delray Beach, were charged in an indictment on Dec. 9 for allegedly luring women and girls through a fake website then forcing them into prostitution.
Foster faces three counts of sex trafficking by force, along with charges of conspiracy to sex traffic minors, sex trafficking of a minor, and transportation of an individual for prostitution.
Holloway and Chan were charged with one count of sex trafficking by fraud and coercion, and Chan was also charged with one count of transportation of an individual for prostitution.
The website, which is no longer open to public access, claimed to offer free help to victims of sex trafficking in the form of housing, therapy, medical treatment, job training, and police assistance, the publication said.
Court documents allege that Foster’s victims were all moved to different states to be trafficked and provided with false identities.
Foster had between 5 and 15 females living and working for him at any given time. They also worked at exotic dance venues in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties and engaged in commercial sex at Foster’s request, the documents state.
The victims were not allowed to keep any of the money they made from the exotic dancing and prostitution and were forced instead to give money to Foster, who promised to invest their earnings.
One of the victims said they were recruited into Foster’s sex trafficking organization in or around August 2007 as a minor, and commercially sex trafficked by Foster both as a minor and then as an adult from November 2007 to May 2010.
Another of Foster’s victims was allegedly recruited into his organization and was commercially sex trafficked from May 2004 to August 2011.
The court documents allege that he also regularly engaged in sex with the victims when they were still minors, and there were a number of domestic violence incidences reported by the victims who lived with him.
Foster allegedly preyed on girls who were in group homes, homeless shelters, or strip clubs, and lured them in with the promise of wealth before forcing them to diet and sell their bodies. He even paid for them to have cosmetic surgery, including breast augmentation and nose jobs, according to The Palm Beach Post.
Court documents state that officials were notified of Foster’s activities when a third victim contacted law enforcement in 2019 because she was being pressured to engage in commercial sex by Foster and his organization after being flown from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Detroit, Michigan.
Foster was detained on Nov. 19 and remains in custody pending trial. Holloway and Chan are scheduled to have their pre-trial detention hearings on Dec. 13 and to be arraigned on Dec. 19.
