FBI: Man admits running sexual delivery service
Agency says workers mostly female illegal immigrants
By J.J. Stambaugh
Knoxville News Sentinel
Posted July 17, 2010 at midnight
________________________ ________________________ ________
Selvin Salvador Perdomo is accused in a federal indictment of running a massive prostitution ring from this house, at 5101 Papermill Drive in Knoxville. Perdomo rented the house from Robert Haws, a retired attorney, who said he will evict him.
Selvin Salvador Perdomo has been under FBI surveillance for at least a year.
Photo by J. Miles Cary
Buy this photo »
Carol and Helen Taylor, neighbors of Selvin Salvador Perdomo, sit Friday with their daughter, Annette Bowman. The Taylors said it was obvious Perdomo was being watched by police in the last year but that they never saw any illegal activity at the house.
Related document.FBI affidavit containing allegations against Perdomo
A 36-year-old Knoxville man arrested early this week has admitted to the FBI that he employed up to 400 female escorts who performed sex acts for cash in Knox and surrounding counties, court records show.
Selvin Salvador Perdomo, a Honduran national who is in the United States legally on a visa, ran the sexual delivery service out of a house he rented at 5101 Papermill Drive and almost exclusively employed female illegal immigrants of Hispanic descent, according to the FBI.
Perdomo took appointments through his cell phone and then drove the women to clients' homes in his red Ford Escort, records allege. In return for his services, the FBI alleges, Perdomo took half of the women's earnings.
His arrest came after at least a year of surveillance by an FBI task force that worked with the Knoxville Police Department, Knox County Sheriff's Office, Clinton Police Department and Blount County Sheriff's Office.
He is charged under a federal statute known as the Mann Act, which makes it a crime to transport people across state lines or U.S. borders for the purpose of prostitution.
Undercover agents lured him Tuesday to an apartment at 790 North Cedar Bluff Road with the promise of giving him cash in exchange for sexual favors with a prostitute identified as Catalina Flores, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Clay Moss Anderson.
After collecting $60, Perdomo waited in the living room while Flores went into the bedroom with an undercover officer, Anderson said. When she removed her pants, the agent "gave the code word" that summoned a team of officers to take Perdomo into custody, the complaint stated.
Perdomo later admitted that he "transported illegal alien females for the purpose of engaging in illegal sex acts," records show.
"Perdomo admitted to engaging approximately ... 400 females in commercial sex acts over the past four years," Anderson said. "He said that he worked them approximately seven days a week and that almost all of the females were illegal aliens."
Flores told the agents that she lives in the Atlanta area, and Perdomo called her last week to ask if she wanted to work for him, records show. Perdomo picked her up on Monday and immediately put her to work, with sex acts quickly scheduled "for the entire week in Knoxville," the complaint stated. Flores, who had planned to return home Sunday after finishing her Knoxville appointments, wasn't charged, according to FBI Supervisory Special Agent Michael Maclean.
Perdomo's clients were almost exclusively Hispanic, and the FBI's Knoxville office became involved in the case as part of an ongoing probe into human trafficking being conducted by federal authorities in Memphis and Atlanta, he said.
The FBI had initially been told that Perdomo was using underage girls in the operation, "but we obviously didn't see that," Maclean said.
Perdomo's attorney, Tracy Jackson Smith, didn't return a phone call seeking comment. Perdomo waived a Friday detention hearing and remained jailed in Blount County.
Anderson's affidavit makes it clear that Perdomo had been under surveillance since last July. Over the past year, agents followed Perdomo and various women to mobile homes, apartments and houses in Knox, Blount, Loudon and Sevier counties, records show.
When FBI agents executed a search warrant on Perdomo's house, they found "a large quantity of condoms, lubricant, and other sex aids or supplies," along with "a yearly planner containing a log of females dating back to 2008," records show.
A young woman at Perdomo's house Friday identified herself as his stepdaughter but said she didn't want to be interviewed or photographed.
His neighbors, Carl and Helen Taylor, both 87, said that Perdomo lived at the house with his wife and children. They said that Perdomo spoke little or no English and that his wife had to translate when they hired him to mow their lawn.
While Perdomo was in many respects a good neighbor and the Taylors never saw any overtly illegal acts, it was obvious he was being watched by the police, said Carl Taylor.
"One night I went out about 10 p.m., just stretching my legs, you know, and all of a sudden there was a helicopter right above my head," he said. "That thing was whisper quiet."
Perdomo was growing corn, Taylor said, and he surmised that was why the helicopter was buzzing about.
"I thought they were checking to see if he was growing marijuana," he said.
Also, he said, police cars frequently drove by Perdomo's house and slowed down as if they were looking to see who was there.
Helen Taylor said it looked as though Perdomo was taking in boarders because of the number of people who seemed to be staying in the house. She also said that young women often came to the house but that there was nothing about their behavior that aroused suspicion.
"There were a lot of comings and goings," she said.
Perdomo had been renting the house from Robert Haws, a retired attorney, for several years. Haws said that Perdomo paid $650 a month, but he planned to evict him after hearing of his arrest.
"That's the end of him," Haws said. "His rear end is going out the door quick. I don't put up with that."
Haws' property manager said that Perdomo, who went by "Selvie," spoke only Spanish and paid his monthly rent in cash. Perdomo claimed to be a carpenter and, by all appearances, the family that lived there seemed fairly normal, he said.
Although a News Sentinel analysis shows that Knoxville led the state last year in the number of per capita prostitution-related arrests and citations, federal prosecutions for prostitution are rare. Most prostitution charges are misdemeanors brought in state court that typically result in a fine or a few days in jail.
J.J. Stambaugh may be reached at 865-342-6307.
________________________ ________________________ ________________
A young woman at Perdomo's house Friday identified herself as his stepdaughter but said she didn't want to be interviewed or photographed.[/color]
