A Maryland man accused of coercing a Western Massachusetts teenager to cross state lines for sex and gifting him expensive products in exchange will be held in jail pending his trial, according to court documents.
David Kaufman, 42, was indicted in April by a grand jury on charges he knowingly enticed the teen, then 18 and called “Victim 1″ in court files, to travel to Maryland to engage in prostitution; Kaufman also was charged with aiding and abetting, according to a motion in the case.
Between 2022 and April, when he was arrested, Kaufman lived in the penthouse suite of the Four Seasons in Baltimore, Maryland, which was purchased by his aunt in 2022.
The first incident with the Western Massachusetts teen occurred in early February 2024, according to the motion.
Kaufman worked with another minor, then 17 and identified in court as “Witness 1,” who in late January 2024 invited Victim 1 to spend a weekend in Baltimore. Kaufman paid for their flight tickets, according to the documents.
On the flight, prosecutors say that the other teen told the victim that he “might have to ‘do stuff’ to get ‘full benefits’ from Kaufman,” the motion said.
The government said the victim “understood that to mean that he would have to engage in sex acts with Kaufman in exchange for things of value, such as fancy dinners and nice gifts.” The victim was a high school senior at the time.
Court documents go on to say that Kaufman coerced the two teens to drink alcohol and smoke cannabis until they were intoxicated, before forcibly performing oral sex on the victim. Kaufman is alleged to have recorded the events on video.
Kaufman also is accused of providing specific “allowances” to both the victim and witness for having engaged in “specific sex acts” with him; for example, the witness was paid an additional $1,000 for “recruiting Victim 1 to travel with him to engage in sex with Kaufman,” court documents state.
After the February visit, Kaufman bought expensive clothing and accessories for the victim, including a more than $4,000 Louis Vuitton bag and close to $1,500 in electronic payments.
A second incident happened the next month, in March. The victim and witness again returned to Baltimore, on a flight paid for by Kaufman.
When the victim told Kaufman he did not want to participate in sexual acts, Kaufman allegedly “told Victim 1 about trauma Kaufman experienced in his childhood, explaining that he previously engaged in self-harm, and that he (Kaufman) had suicidal ideations,” threatening to hurt himself if the victim didn’t participate.
It was during this trip Kaufman allegedly told the victim he had many “clients” whom he would pay in exchange for sex acts or pornograpy. The government’s investigation into Kaufman and the witness showed that there were additional minors who were victimized.
All of the minors were between 14 and 17 years old, and are or were friends with the teen witness, according to the documents. They communicated with Kaufman on Snapchat, a photo and video sharing app in which anything sent can disappear after a certain amount of time.
On a third trip to Baltimore in June, the witness and his girlfriend traveled with one of the minors, who was 16 at the time. Kaufman again paid for the flights, and sent more than $2,000 to him, documents state. On a second visit later that month, the minor allegedly engaged in sex acts with Kaufman, the witness told investigators.
By October, the minor received close to $8,500 from Kaufman. There were two more short trips in which the witness traveled with one of the minors to and from Baltimore.
The witness is described as someone who “brought young males to David i(n) Baltimore for the purposes of prostitution and who also obstructed the investigation,” according to a filing by attorney Eric Rosen, the Boston attorney representing Kaufman. The witness has not been charged as a co-conspirator.
It is unclear from the documents how the witness and Kaufman knew each other.
A brief history of Kaufman
Court documents describe Kaufman as a man who grew up in a middle-class family outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was bullied as a child about his weight and often purchased Chinese food for classmates so that they would spend time with him.
The accused came into money around 2009, after his grandparents, successful business owners, sold their company to a private equity firm, which made the entire family wealthy.
“Trusts were set up in David and his brother’s names that produced enough income to allow them financial freedom,” the motion said.
Rosen declined to comment about his client because of the nature of the case. The assistant U.S. attorneys on the case also declined to comment.
A Maryland federal court judge ordered Kaufman to be held until his trial. The case has been moved up to the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts.
