Authorities: Over 60 exploited by pimp

Details emerge in hearing for trafficker’s alleged co-conspirators

In his 15-year career as a pimp, he trafficked over 60 women and amassed at least a $2 million fortune, prosecutors allege.

The details about the extent of William Foster’s alleged sex trafficking emerged Friday during a detention hearing for two women accused of conspiring with him. Ashleigh Holloway, of Fort Lauderdale, and Hannah Chan, of Delray Beach, turned themselves in to face charges earlier this week. Prosecutors described them as Foster’s “main girls.”

Foster, who is currently being held without bond while awaiting trial, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for sex trafficking and for the trafficking of minors. Court records show he and the women in his organization led a lavish lifestyle that included luxury cars, high-priced homes and designer goods.

Foster was not present in federal court in Miami on Friday.

If convicted, he faces in life in prison.

Holloway, 36, is accused of acting as Foster’s recruiter.

Prosecutors say her job was to ferret out vulnerable women at strip clubs across South Florida and entice them into becoming one of Foster’s girls with promises of profits, plastic surgery and luxury goods.

Chan, 31, is accused of managing the business side of Foster’s operation, and of arranging the transport of women to other states for the purposes of prostitution.

It was Chan who allegedly was in charge of collecting the money made by the other women in Foster’s organization.

“These two women are, frankly, predators,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Mackenzie Duane during the proceedings. “They exploit vulnerable women. They carry his [Foster’s] torch.”

Arguing that they were a threat to public safety, prosecutors requested that both women be held without bond.

In the course of their arguments, attorneys for the government revealed that they had identified at least 60 other women alleged to have been victims of Foster’s organization between 2004 and 2019.

They also shed new light on how Foster paid for the champagne, luxury cars and yacht parties he is reported to have feted his victims with.

Prosecutors explained that a bank account belonging to a company reportedly owned by Foster and Chan showed over $250,000 in cash deposits between February 2017 and August 2018.

And they alleged that a bank account tied to Chan showed cash deposits of $450,000 between 2012 to 2018.

They also revealed that Chan, who has not been officially employed since 2012, had over $1.2 million of equity in a Delray Beach house.

More worrisome for Federal Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Becerra were prosecutors’ reports that Foster had called both Holloway and Chan from prison, and instructed the two women to contact other victims of his organization in an effort to rally their support.

“I’m very concerned with the tampering of the witnesses,” the judge said before granting both Holloway and Chan $600,000 bond and ordering them to refrain from contacting anyone associated with the case and from using any device capable of accessing the internet.

“At this point, we are actively investigating all the allegations” made by the government, said Chan’s defense attorney Tara Namat Kawass after the detention hearing in which her client was granted bond.

Authorities began investigating Foster and his alleged co-conspirators after an unnamed Fort Lauderdale woman called a hotline from a hotel room in Detroit. She alleged Foster and Holloway pressured her to prostitute herself.

If convicted, Holloway and Chan face maximum penalties of life in prison.