AMARILLO, Texas — Today, U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson sentenced Kelly Marie Jellison, 24, of Arlington, Texas, to 24 months in prison and ordered her to pay a $5000 fine, following her guilty plea in November 2009 to one count of money laundering and aiding and abetting, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Jellison’s co-defendant and business partner, Byron Dale Johnson, 46, pleaded guilty to the same offense and was sentenced last week by Judge Robinson to 60 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine. He was remanded into custody following that sentencing hearing. Jellison must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on April 19, 2010. Both Jellison and Johnson are former residents of Amarillo, Texas.
According to documents filed, from May 2004 to approximately August 1, 2008, Johnson and Jellison were partners in an interstate prostitution ring, advertising their business on the Internet under the guise of an escort service. Jellison and other women provided the prostitution services, traveling from Texas, to numerous cities including Chicago, New York City and Boston, to engage in prostitution with men solicited through Internet advertising.
“The defendants in this case laundered their ill-gotten profits in order to fuel the continuation of their illicit, Internet based prostitution enterprise,” said Andrea Whelan, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division’s Dallas Field Office. “These sentences should serve as a deterrent to those who might contemplate similar criminal conduct.”
The prostitutes were paid for their services by credit cards and cash which were deposited into an account at Bank of America which both Johnson and Jellison controlled. The proceeds from the accounts were used to promote and perpetuate the interstate prostitution enterprise by purchasing airline tickets, hotel accommodations and paying advertising expenses to Darkside Productions, Inc., a/k/a EROS. The prostitution proceeds were also used to make a $10,000 down payment on a Flying Spur Bentley luxury automobile and to make payments on a home located on River Legacy Drive in Arlington. Both the Bentley and the home in Arlington were used by Johnson and Jellison as a backdrop for photos used to Internet ads that promoted their prostitution services.
The financial transactions noted above were financial transactions involving financial institutions and affected interstate and foreign commerce. The transactions were made with what Johnson and Jellison knew to be proceeds from interstate prostitution and transactions were conducted for the purpose of promoting and carrying on the interstate enterprise.
The case was investigated by IRS - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Lamberson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Amarillo.
