Man thought he was flying 17-year-old to WA for sex work, feds say. Now he’s charged
A 23-year-old man thought he was recruiting a 17-year-old girl into sex work when he bought her a plane ticket to Washington, federal officials said.
But the girl was actually an undercover officer in Denver, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington said in a news release.
Isaac Shorack, 23, was arrested at the SeaTac airport on Feb. 2 on charges of attempted enticement of a minor and attempted transportation of a minor to engage in prostitution, according to a criminal complaint.
An attorney for Shorack did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Federal officials began investigating Shorack after receiving a tip in November from the National Human Trafficking Hotline that a minor had been forced into sex work for three weeks in exchange for housing and drugs, the complaint says.
Investigators found group text messages on the minor’s phone, including from Shorack and other girls discussing sex work, court documents show.
Then an undercover officer in Denver created an Instagram account and posed as a 17-year-old girl to message Shorack on Jan. 28, documents show.
In Instagram messages, texts and phone calls, Shorack told the agent — who he thought was a teenager — about the kind of work she would do in Seattle and the money she could make, officials said.
The man also had some of his workers message the officer to talk up the the job, according to the criminal complaint.
“Sounded scary at first but it’s a crazy fun lifestyle. Travel, drive nice cars, have anything I want,” one worker messaged the undercover officer.
Shorack told the agent he had seven girls working for him, authorities said in the documents.
Shorack bought the agent a plane ticket from Denver to Seattle so they could discuss the purported 17-year-old becoming a sex worker for him, prosecutors said. But when he went to pick “her” up outside the baggage claim, he was arrested by airport police, the news release states.
He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison to life.
“This case began with a tip from a concerned citizen. Then law enforcement uncovered how Mr. Shorack used money and promises to lure young women into prostitution so that he could line his own pockets,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in the release.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Man thought he was flying 17-year-old to WA for sex work, feds say. Now he’s charged."
