Veniamin Gonikman, Accused Human Trafficker, Should Pay Victims $1.6 Million, Prosecutors Say

Federal prosecutors Thursday urged a U.S. District Court to order accused human trafficker Veniamin Gonikman to pay $1.6 million to 12 victims, and ignore the defendant's plea for leniency.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the Ukranian nightclub owner, who was once on the FBI's Most Wanted list, faces up to 51 months in prison for his role in smuggling "Ukranian dancers" into the United States to work as strippers.

According to authorities, the women were forced work long hours, hand over their earnings -- sometimes "$3,000 to $4,000" a week, according to one victim's 2007 testimony before Congress -- and were verbally and physically abused. The Detroit Free Press reported that authorities estimated Gonikman extorted more than $1 million from his victims.

"I could not refuse to go to work or I would be beat­en," the victim testified. "I was of­ten yelled at for not making enough mon­ey, or had a gun put to my face."

Gonikman plead guilty to money laundering charges in September 2011, and is seeking a jail sentence of 10-to-16 months, but insists that it was his co-defendant son that was behind the human trafficking operation, according to the Detroit Free Press.

In 2005, Gonikman fled the United States after being charged in Detroit with a 22-count indictment on charges including "trafficking in persons, forced labor, alien smuggling, money laundering, extortion collection, and conspiracy," according to CBS Detroit. He was arrested in January 2011 after being deported from Ukraine.

In March 2011, the Associated Press reported that Michigan would strengthen its human trafficking laws in response to a rash of "modern-day slavery" in the state. That report cited Gonikman's case as a high-profile example, but indicated that human trafficking had become a major issue across the state, from Detroit to the Upper Peninsula.

Comments

[sunflower12]

08:59 AM on 04/30/2012

51 months is nothing, it doesn't even start to pay for the victim's suffering. And he wants to assign the blame to his son.
Michigan is right, the law has not caught up yet to modern-day slavery.

[Rich914]

02:25 PM on 04/29/2012

Make him pay them all. Even if he has to provide sexual services to fellow inmates for a buck or two a pop to raise the money.

[Cratewasher]

12:39 PM on 04/29/2012

How about tying him up and giving his victims some lead pipes and baseball bats?

[Dahveed1]

01:39 AM on 04/29/2012

That sort of thing only gets you 4 years? I think you get more time for possessing pot.

[ethical-slice]

05:30 PM on 04/28/2012

hope he's having fun in jail!

[dadw5boys]

10:56 AM on 04/28/2012

Pay ther Victims EVERYTHING he has !
Sell off and take everything and divide it between them .
Broke and helpless is how he left them !

[Snoopwith Camel]

11:31 PM on 04/27/2012

What we are seeing here is the seamy side of globalization.Not enough time in the slammer but it's a start; next they should go after the legitimized corporate 'persons' who do not pay their employees a living wage! Like that will ever happen.

[outwithshelby]

08:27 PM on 04/27/2012

This man is a maggot.

[wonderYrednow]

03:41 PM on 04/28/2012

Giving maggots a bad name.

[Bluemax1]

08:15 PM on 04/27/2012

There is a need to transform the DEA and let them loose on human traffickers here in the U.S. The business of trafficking is escalating as drug dealers branch out due to greater profits and less threat by law enforcement. By retaining this agency and redirecting it while phasing out prohibition this could end up a win-win for the people and our government.

[gerald4]

03:34 PM on 04/27/2012

I thought that this article was about the US Secret Service operations!

[somewhatodd]

03:13 PM on 04/27/2012

so~ he's the republicans' over regulated job creator who needs a tax cut.

[wonderYrednow]

03:42 PM on 04/28/2012

Perfect!

[stargazer13]

02:27 PM on 04/27/2012

and if he does not have the money
in my opinion we should
sell his body over and over again
until he does ! have the money to pay all of his victims :)

[wonderYrednow]

03:43 PM on 04/28/2012

one wonders if his incarceration stay will 'enlighten' him to the 'joys' of sexual liberation ?

[Truthiness4Me]

01:26 PM on 04/27/2012

Blaming it on his kid, huh? Wowee, what a great dad!!! Yikes!

[Jen Celli]

12:32 PM on 04/27/2012

Wow... you can rob a liquor store with a handgun and get more time in prison than this guy is getting for enslaving and extorting these women. What's wrong with this picture?

[someonewhocares2]

02:54 PM on 04/27/2012

hes white

[Scurvydog74]

11:33 PM on 04/28/2012

...and rich...

[Lechiffre]

11:04 AM on 04/29/2012

and a slave trader to boot . His name is Veniamin Gonikman = vermine gonnorhea.

[gerald4]

03:35 PM on 04/27/2012

A lots of his customers might have been law makers!

[wonderYrednow]

03:44 PM on 04/28/2012

Nailed it!

[Lechiffre]

11:05 AM on 04/29/2012

Which explains why he only got 4 years . He could go Heidi Fleiss on them lol!