A 25-year-old Hungarian man is facing 155 years in prison after 12 jurors found him guilty of human trafficking and racketeering on Thursday.
Andras Vass and two other men, Gabor Acs and Viktor Berki were arrested last October for running a company called Never Sleep Inc which forced three young men to prostitute themselves for up to 20 hours a day.
The Miami Herald reported that according to the arrest warrant, the company in 2012 flew the three men aged 20-22 to New York City, where they lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment and were forced to have sex with customers or with each other on webcam.
Up to eight men lived and worked in the apartment.
In August 2012, the group moved their operation to Miami-Dade.
The court heard that the ringleaders kept their passports, and threatened them and their families back in Hungary if they refused to work.
According to the authorities, the ringleaders met two victims in Hungary through a website called GayRomeo.com while another was ‘living with gypsies’ as a male prostitute in Hungary when he met one company representative through Facebook, the Miami Herald reported.
The victims were promised they would make US$3,500 to US$5,000 a month for legal escort work.
Vass faces a minimum of 21 years and up to 155 years in prison. He will be sentenced June 2.
Acs and Berki, a former policeman in Hungary, are still awaiting trial.