Update 10/20/10: YouTube video with sub-titles can be seen here.

Update 10/10/10: Unofficial translation follows Brazilian news broadcast of “Childhood in Danger” by Rede Record. It reports that the FBI has been in Brazil investigating the sexual exploitation of underage Indian girls by North Americans. It also reports that the FBI interviewed a victim in her village and provides video of her living conditions. She alleges that she lost her virginity and was left pregnant by one of two North Americans on a fishing trip to Brazil.

Editor’s Note and Adult Content Warning 10/8/2010: Portuguese to English translations done by myself using Yahoo Babel fish and Babylon. They are rough translations of what is in the subtitles. Be warned that the Brazilian news broadcast has sexually explicit pictures.

Thank you,

Sandy

Over two years ago I published “Child Sex Tourism: Brazilian Teens Testify About Being Lured into Minor Prostitution for American Tourists.”

It imagined what it would be like to be a 13 year old Brazilian Indian girl, living with her poor family on their reservation. Then a North American named “Richard” shows up and asks for your help to sweep, do laundry and cook on his fishing boat.

You agree because your family needs the money for food.

When you get to the boat, you learn that your real job, along with other girls, is to drink whiskey and beer and have sex with the “North Americans” on a fishing trip. After they go back home, you are left pregnant, not knowing who the father is.

Three years later, in July of 2007, you find yourself with four of the same girls in the office of the Regional Superintendent of the Federal Police of the State of Amazonas with your mother, a federal police transcriber, an attorney hired to represent you and the Federal Police Chief, who is asking you to tell him what happened. The police take your deposition because they are investigating that minor Indian and other girls living near the rivers in the regions of Autazes became victims of sexual exploitation by North-American foreign tourists.

The girls testify that “Richard” went to the same village every year, luring girls to help him with housekeeping and cooking on his boat, the Amazon Santana.

Two days ago, this Brazilian news broadcast told the same story. “Companies That Sell packages of Tourism in the Amazon Promote Orgies” aired October 6 and is described as:

"Fashion in Europe, Japan and the USA is the ecological tourism. Who is buying the packages do not want the traditional uses, either adventure. One of the destinations is the Brazilian Amazon. Girls are employed to work on vessels of luxury and are sexually exploited by foreign tourists."

The broadcast includes video of the Amazon Santana and interviews with some of the girls, their attorney and a Brazilian Federal Police officer sitting with a box of evidence marked 410/2007. This is the same case number with the same evidence that led the Brazilian federal police to indict former fishing tour operator Richard Schair for rape, operating a prostitution network and using minors as prostitutes.

The news report begins with police sweeping the streets for underage prostitutes. Then we see pictures of tourists on “ecological” trips through the jungles.

Reporter Luiz Carlos Azen then takes us to Manaus with the Amazon Santana and Santana II anchored in the background. These are the same fishing boats used by Schair before he was indicted and denied habeas corpus. This means that upon entering Brazil, he’ll be arrested.

Azen narrates a performance by Amazon Indians after which a spokesman says on subtitle that the girls of the “program” come to the villages. A “program” is sexual services provided by these underage prostitutes.

We are then taken to the office of the superintendent of the Brazilian Federal Police for the Manaus region of the Amazon District and meet Dr. Washington Magalhaes, the attorney who represents the girls who went to the police.

Tears started running down my face as I saw, for the first time, the Indian girls that I have written for. They are shown sitting on a wooden floor with a laptop nearby. They may never know about me or my work or the battles that I and others have fought on their behalf but hearing their brave voices in their face-masked interviews makes it all worth it.

They answer Azen’s questions about having sex aboard the Amazon Santana with those who speak English.

“How many men did you make sex with on this ship, the Amazon Santana?” Azen asks.

“With two,” the girl answers.

“Would you recognize them?” he asks.

“With certainty,” she answers.

“That nationality was?” he asks.

“Not from here, Brazilians were not.”

“They spoke what language?” he asks.

“They said everything in English,” she answered.

The second girl states “It was for me to use a drug that they were using called marijuana. It compelled me to make sex in a private room in the same motor boat, in a berth.” (1)

“The name of the boat,” Azen asks.

“Amazon Santana,” she replies.

Azen then takes us on a quick tour of the Amazon Santana before showing still pictures that include members of the Royal Order of Jesters fishing and partying with the girls. One has a picture of a fisherman in a Jester t-shirt with another Jester sporting a white beard similar to a national Jester officer who lives in Las Vegas. The Jesters involvement is best explained here.

From the article:

“Federal court documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, related to case number 07-21228, list 19 witnesses who are believed to be members of the Royal Order of Jesters (ROJ) AKA Shriners AKA Masons, who are expected to testify about fishing trips to Brazil and "their first hand knowledge of prostitution, minor prostitution, use of illegal drugs and/or entry into Indian reservations by Schair (plaintiff) and/or his customers."

The witness list can be found here.

Back to the Brazilian news story.

We then meet Roberto Jesus Camara, the inspector in charge of Brazilian Federal Police investigation 410/2007. He and Azen discuss the case of American Richard W. Schair which includes violating the rights of the Brazilian Indigenous.

Azen then asks one of the girls “What is the name of your enticer/inveigher/seducer?”

“Richard” she answered.

“That nationality he was?” he asks.

“Wasn’t Brazilian, not. Was of the United States.”

Azen then discusses the indigenous violations with Dr. Washington and we see a map that shows exclusive Indian reservations and government preserves, protected by law against such trespassing.

Next, Azen takes us to what appears to be a shed but is instead the home of the girl who was left pregnant at age 13 after one of Schair’s fishing trips. We see worldly belongings on a bed and an empty refrigerator.

“Do you know the father of your son?” he asks.

“No,” she answers.

“Then there is a possibility that one of the two Americans is the father?” he asks.

“That possibility exists,” she answers.

“What would you like?” Azen concludes.

“So that they pay,” she answers.

RECORD

Broadcast and unofficial translation follows.

"Childhood in Danger: Companies that Sell Tour Packages in the Amazon Promote Orgies"

10/06/2010

Ecological tourism is the style in Europe, Japan and the U.S.. The purchasers of packages do not want traditional destinations, they want adventure. One of these destinations is the Brazilian Amazon. Girls are contracted to work on luxury boats and are exploited sexually by foreign tourists.

Video

0:00 A police case in the U.S. and Brazil, companies that sell tourism packages of adventure in the Amazon, promote orgies during the sport fishing trips.

00:14 Girls contracted to work on luxury boats are sexually exploited by foreign tourists. That is what reporters Luis Carlos Agnes, Aumari Ribeiro, Jr. and Lumis Umica show in the special segment “Childhood in Danger.”

0:27 The operation in a suburb of Manaus the capitol of Amazonas, is to find minor prostitutes. On this night “counselor tutilar” or Minor Authority were able to locate two, one 15 and one 17.

0:48 Azen: What do you find when you start to investigate the lives of these girls?

Police: The financial situation where they take food home, the money home and they sell themselves. The parents many times know that they are doing this, certainly the majority of the parents have the knowledge that the daughter is putting something in the house and they know that it is in exchange for their body.

1:17 Now the authorities are starting to collect proof that the problem is aggravated by foreign tourists.

1:39 On arrival they see the splendid side of the city, the inheritance from when the city grew because of the rubber barons. But the majority of the tourists also want to explore the jungle and the bounty of the waters.

2:01 The style is now in Japan, Europe and the U.S. is a type of tourism called “ecological tourism” who purchases the package no longer wants to know about the traditional destination, London, Paris, New York, they want adventure.

2:12 One of the preferred destinations is this here the Brazilian Amazon.

2:16 We are navigating on the waters of the Rio Negro river and these boats that you see there are part of this industry of tourism. That attracts people full of money who come from the exterior and who many times trip over the laws of Brazil.

2:32 Now we are on our way to Autazes, 150Km (92 miles) from Manaus. It is the destination of the trips that take the foreigner to the most isolated corners of the Amazon. Where fishing is bountiful.

2:47 It's not the only attraction for tourists, in the middle of the route they experiment with the easy ability to see up-close certain Indian groups.

3:00 In Sao Joao do Tupe they assist this ceremony of thanks for the bountiful plenty that comes from the land and the water.

3:11 But the son of the chief complains that the interests of those who come from the outside is not for the traditions or the beauty of the jungle. They come in the company of girl prostitutes, here in the tribe. So this bothers me some because it looks like we are playing, do you understand?

3:28 What Reginaldo wants to say is that the sexual tourism that has spread along the river communities.

3:35 The port of Autazes is where boats tie up looking for women to service the boats. The offers attract the girls who are faced with the hard economic situation.

3:47 Now the Brazilian authorities were forced to act because of accusation that came from the U.S.

3:56 Washington Magalhes Attorney. They were recruited with promises of work for one week which is what an excursion lasts, work aboard and such, under the promises of $100.00 daily in the end had to submit to sexual favors, exploitation of every order, orgies, images collected by the police themselves or taken by them in CD show that there were actually orgies.

4:23 The attorney who presented the witnesses to the Brazilian Federal Police, he represents 7 river girls, all were minors when the case happened in 2004. “In the case of my clients these/this initial meeting, briefing, reception was in from of the port of Autazes and there they ordered their employees, there are depositions that state this, to recruit actually.”

04:46 Nine witnesses agreed to be interviewed without showing their faces, they are afraid of being retaliated against for denouncing this crime.

5:05 Our producer showed on a computer pictures of some of the accused and they recognize the men that are on the boat. One states that she was taken by force to one of the cabins. “They just forced, understand? But I did not do, no because I cried, I squirmed, yelled and he went and opened the door. And later because he was not able he accused me of stealing from him.”

5:30 This other youngster was 16 years of age says that she was invited to participate in a ride and they got there and saw they are really good looking really and what happened was that they arrived they said that if we did not mind that we would go for a ride, and from there go to the boat for the ride. Was when one touched my hand, others on hands of the other girls and we went away.

5:57 Do you remember with how many men you had to have sex on this ship, Amazon Santana?

Just 2

Would you recognize them?

Certainly.

What nationality were they?

I don't know.

Were they Brazilian?

No.

What language did they speak?

They all spoke English.

06:24 The girl we are going to call “J” was 12 years old when she embarked.

He said that I was to use a drug that they were using called marijuana. One forced me to have sex with him. It was in a room reserved on the actual boat, a suite.

And the name of the boat was?

Amazon Santana.

06:46 The case is also being investigated by the FBI, the American police, because it involves U.S. citizens. Here in Brazil the Federal Police made a search of those 2 boats involved, this over here Amazon Santana and Santana I. That where the crimes would have happened involving the tourists and the minor Brazilians. They are luxurious yachts with various cabins. The packages sell for $4,500.00 in the U.S. without the airfare.

7:25 In the investigation the Federal Police obtained pictures like these and proved that they were taken aboard by crewmembers and the girls.

7:39 “Delegado Roberto Camara” Inspector Camara. The instruction of the investigation was based primarily on the statements of the victims, surveillance of some of these trips, seeing women on the boats utilized by the agency.

The investigation which has already been sent to the “Ministerio Publico Federal” or “Federal Attorney,” there were indicted the owner of the agency in Brazil and the man who sold the trips in the U.S., the American Richard
Wayne Schair, who is accused of raping the girl “J.”

8:23 Azen asks Do you remember the name of your coaxer/seducer?

Richard

What was his nationality?

He was not Brazilian, no. Was from the U.S.

8:36 The investigation shows how the route of sexual fishing operated from 2000 to 2007, at least 20 girls were victims.

Of the clients of the attorney Washington, 5 were Indians.

The investigation has been examining and contemplates the depositions that show, for example, agent of the Indian agency (FUNAI) facilitated the entrance of these
excursions, facilitated paid or not, the fact that it is illegal and irregular because they were in prohibited areas. You can only enter in Indian areas with the consent of the Indian agents.

9:21 Even today in the U.S. companies that sell fishing packages in the Amazon promote exclusive access into Indian areas. In this case the reservations of Tapera, Xeurine, Marmelos Jufari, all in the Amazon.

9:38 In a fishing season that last from August through March, the Federal Police calculates that these companies can make almost $2,000,000.00, a fortune, that almost all stays in the U.S. and that here in Brazil leaves a trail of crimes and abuses.

9:57 Attracted to provide services, in the end, cleaning, domestic services, cleaning the boat, cooking, laundry, in the end they were required to service and offered $100.00 per night & left with R$30.00 or R$40.00 ($15.00-$20.00), the most that they were gifted was R$50.00 ($25.00).

10:19 The FBI agents who also investigate the case were in Autazes in the house of this young lady of Indian origin. They found the same poverty level that we are witnessing, a fridge practically empty, they heard dramatic testimony. She states that at 17 she accepted an offer to work on the yacht Amazon Santana. She was convinced by 2 foreigners to have sexual relations. On the trip lost her virginity, and believes that became pregnant of one of them.

Do you know who is the father of your son?

No.

Is there the possibility that one of the Americans is the father?

Exists.

What would you like to happen now?

That they pay for what they have done.

11:07 They are poor children, children that may have the difficulty of studying, education is precarious and there arrives a foreigner with $$$. Makes it easy. Today tourism must be configured as tourism.

All copies of material reprinted or duplicated from "by Sandy Frost" must include the following credit line: From http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com/ Copyright © 2010 by Sandy Frost. Used by permission.

(1) Schair currently acts as a real estate salesman near Atlanta, Georgia. Information on his previous marijuana convictions can be found here and here.

The June 7 criminal complaint in the case of United States of America v. Michael Lesinski paints a clear picture of “Mirth and Merriment,” Royal Order of Jesters style.

That’s how they describe their activities to the IRS, you know.

The Jesters tell the IRS that their tax exempt mission is “promoting fellowship and fraternalism and extending good cheer to others” and that they hold annual events “devoted to fraternalism and spreading the gospel of mirth and good cheer.”

Apparently, this is code for renting a limo to get about a dozen “Jester Girls” from the Buffalo, New York airport to work as prostitutes at a Jester national meeting held in Niagara Falls Ontario, Canada.

Lesinski is charged with “knowingly, willfully and unlawfully combining, conspiring and agreeing together with others, including Ronald Tills, to commit an offense against the United States, that is to knowingly transport women in interstate and foreign commerce, with the intent that said women engage in prostitution, in violation of Title 18 (Mann Act) and that at least one overt act was committed in furtherance of the conspiracy, in that the defendant, Michael Lesinski, on April 18, 2005, did rent limousines in order to transport said women from the Buffalo airport to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, with the intent that the women engage in prostitution.”

The Royal Order of Jesters is an appendant body of Masonry. Once one becomes a Master Mason, they can join other groups such as the Scottish Rite, Knights Templar and Shriners. The Shriners are best known for their red fezzes and supporting a network of 21 hospitals that provide free medical care to burned and crippled children. One must first be a secretly invited Shriner before joining the Jesters.

This all started when Dan Herbeck and Aaron Besecker of the Buffalo News reported on March 9, 2008 that three Jesters were under investigation after getting caught in an FBI human trafficking sting. All three confessed and pleaded guilty to either conspiring to or violating the Mann Act after they were caught driving an illegal alien Asian woman from a Buffalo massage parlor under surveillance for prostitution to a weekend meeting of the Royal Order of Jesters in eastern Kentucky.

Lesinski’s complaint begins by listing agencies that make up the New York Human Trafficking Task Force and Alliance that are investigating the Jesters. These include the FBI, Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE, and deputies from the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. It then lists the criminal statute allegedly violated, that being the Mann Act.

Next, and for the first time, the Royal Order of Jesters are defined in their own self-titled section.

It begins:

“The Royal Order of Jesters (“ROJ”) is a worldwide fraternal organization whose membership is limited to individuals invited to join by other members. The motto of the ROJ is ‘mirth is king.’ The ROJ has local chapters or ‘courts.’ On occasion, a local court or group of local courts in the same geographical area sponsor social gatherings known as ‘books of the play’ or ‘books.’ The sponsoring courts organize the ‘books’ and arrange for food, lodging, and entertainment at the ‘books.’ The ROJ also sponsors a yearly national ‘book,’ the equivalent of a national convention. In April, 2005, the Jester’s national book was held in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.”

“As set forth below, a typical feature of a ‘book of the play’ is the presence of prostitutes (‘Jester Girls’) who engage in commercial sex acts with members of the ROJ. Arrangements for the prostitutes are generally made by the organizer of the ‘books,’ or the region hosting the national ‘book.’ On occasion, individual Jesters make arrangements to transport prostitutes to ‘books.’”

According to the complaint, investigators began interviewing several Jesters in January and February of 2008. Jester John Trowbridge, a retired captain with the Lockport, New York, Police Department, told investigators about how he attended a number of “books” throughout the United States and Canada that provided prostitutes for those members in attendance.

Trowbridge described a number of occasions where members of the Buffalo Court, including Ronald Tills, then a New York State Supreme Court Judge, and his law clerk, Michael Stebick, made arrangements for Jester Girls to attend “books.” Tills was in charge of getting the prostitutes to the Jesters’ national “book.”

According to his plea agreement, in or about spring, 2006, Tills admitted to coordinating the prostitute’s travel with national Jester officers.

Trowbridge also described how Tills was in charge of getting the Jester Girls to the national meeting and that the judge asked Lesinski to take care of it.

Lesinski, at the time, was a deputy sheriff with the Erie County Sheriff’s Department.

Trowbridge then disclosed that Lesinski rented a limousine to transport about a dozen prostitutes from Buffalo to Canada.

The Jesters’ 2005 tax return lists $70, 049 for transportation. The complaint includes a receipt from Lakeview Limousine that indicates a deposit of $980 was paid for by check, with a total cost of $1,175.

The complaint then includes co-conspirator Michael Stebick’s description of how Jester ‘books’ are typically held in hotel hospitality rooms where members can pick from a list of Jester Girl prostitutes. It continues that in April, 2008, Trowbridge provided investigators with contact information for the 13 prostitutes as he’d spoken with each of them as they gathered at the Buffalo airport though there were other prostitutes he’d not spoken with.

In June 2008 Tills told investigators that there were about 30 women at the national book and “described a network of members who had the ability to supply such women.” It was then that he identified Lesinski’s renting of two limousines that took the prostitutes to Canada.

According to “Sex Traffic Rises, Along With Scramble for Solutions” by We-news correspondent Rich Daly:

“These (2010 United States Human Trafficking Report) statistics come out as Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican and co-chair of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus, is co-sponsoring a bill to establish an international registry of known sex offenders to help foreign and U.S. law enforcement agencies crack down on underage sex tourism also linked to trafficking.

‘This is modern day slavery and it's a winnable war,’ Smith said in an interview with Women's eNews.

The Smith bill, called the International Megan's Law, was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 28 and could come up for a House vote in the next few weeks, Smith said.”

Representative Smith’s bill can be found here. In summary, H.R. 1623:

• Requires registered sex offenders to notify appropriate jurisdictions of their intent to travel not later than 21 days before their departure or arrival in the United States. Imposes a fine and/or prison term of up to 10 years for failure to report such travel.
• Requires diplomatic or consular missions in each foreign country to establish and maintain a countrywide sex offender registry for sex offenders from the United States who temporarily or permanently reside in such country.
• Directs the Commissioner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to issue directives for the assessment of sex offenders whose travel is reported to determine whether such offenders are high risk sex offenders.
• Directs the President to establish the International Sex Offender Travel Center to monitor the travel of high risk sex offenders.
• Authorizes the Secretary of State to rescind the passports of individuals awaiting trial for a sex offense against a minor or a permanent resident who has been convicted of such an offense.
• Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to make convicted sex offenders inadmissible to the United States.

If passed as written, these new international sex offender laws would rescind the passports of any Jesters on trial for things like child sex tourism and require any other registered sex offenders to report their intention to leave the country at least 21 days before doing so.

All copies of material reprinted or duplicated from "by Sandy Frost" must include the following credit line: From http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com. Copyright (c) 2010 by Sandy Frost. Used by permission.

Charles A. Soderman, 31, of Marathon, Fla., was sentenced Tuesday to 78 months in federal prison after he was found guilty by a federal jury in September.

According to a news release from the U.S Attorney's Office, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Martone also ordered that Soderman be on a lifetime supervised release and register as a sex offender.

According to the release, on March 9, Soderman flew from Miami to Yuma and then traveled to the Mexican border in an attempt to have sex with a male child as young as age 6. The arrest was part of an undercover operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to halt sex tourism into Mexico as part of ICE's national program, Operation Predator.

From the article:

"Sexual predators cannot hide from ICE simply by traveling across borders to exploit, violate, and abuse children," said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE John Morton. "Working closely with our partners overseas, we will continue to identify people who travel for illicit purposes, and we will pursue justice for abused children no matter where they live."

Mathias traveled to the Philippines in April 2007 and December 2007 and engaged in sexual conduct with the minors on those trips and recorded those acts. He also made the minors sign a contract in December 2007 requiring them to be his sex slaves.

ICE began the undercover sex tourism operation in Yuma in 1997. Since that time, agents have arrested 43 suspects, including Rogers. This investigation is part of Operation Predator, an ongoing ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

A federal immigration officer was arrested for allegedly having sex with an 11-year-old child, and photographing the acts, while on official business in Brazil. it is not known if ICE is part of any possible investigation looking into allegations that 19 members of the Royal Order of Jesters participated in child sex tourism while on a fishing trip to Brazil.

State Department announces child-sex tourist sentenced to prison.