WASHINGTON D.C. — A U.S. District Judge sentenced a St. Paul, Minnesota man who engaged in a sex trafficking conspiracy to 10 years and eight months in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice officials said today.
Andre James Hertzog, 29. admitted that, from April 2011 to August 2012, he and Nicole Bramer, 29, engaged in a scheme to target and recruit young, vulnerable women, one of whom was a minor, and to make them perform sex acts for their own financial gain., authorities said.
Federal officials said Hertzog and Bramer used coercive tactics, including physical violence and psychological coercion, to isolate the young women, control them and cause them to perform acts of prostitution.
As part of the trafficking scheme, authorities said the defendants transported the victims across state lines and routinely advertised the sexual services of the young women on the internet website Backpage.com.
Bramer, 29, was sentenced to serve 21 months in prison.
Both were order to pay $6100 in restitution to the victims.