Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A federal grand jury in the District of Maine returned a six-count indictment today charging Shawn Bonneau, 40, of Fullerton, California, with sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion and wire fraud.
According to court documents, from January 2016 through December 2023, Bonneau compelled three adult women to perform commercial sex acts in Maine, and elsewhere, for his financial benefit. He also used the electronic mail systems to fraudulently obtain funds from another individual at the same time he was engaging in his sex trafficking scheme.
If convicted, Bonneau faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, with a maximum penalty of life in prison, as well as a maximum penalty of lifetime supervised release.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Andrew B. Benson for the District of Maine made the announcement.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New England Field Office is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Elizabeth Hutson of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Yereniuk for the District of Maine are prosecuting the case.
Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.