Anton Lazzaro, former GOP insider, sentenced to 21 years for sex trafficking minors

Businessman and former Republican activist Anton Lazzaro was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges involving five 15- to 16-year-old girls he paid to have sex with him.

Lazzaro, 32, was labeled a sexual predator by prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minneapolis, who had asked U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz to sentence Lazzaro to 30 years in prison. His attorneys sought a 10-year sentence, the mandatory minimum.

"Mr. Lazzaro has not shown a shred of remorse," Schiltz said at Wednesday's sentencing, noting that the only sympathy Lazzaro had shown was for himself and New York financier Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who was charged with trafficking minors before he died by suicide in 2019.

Before the sentencing, Schiltz ordered the federal government to confiscate Lazzaro's Minneapolis condominium and a Blackberry phone he owned, but not his 2010 Ferrari convertible.

Dressed at the hearing in an orange jail jumpsuit, Lazzaro offered a rambling defense of his behavior and objected to the confiscation of his condominium. He acknowledged no guilt.

"I take offense to the government's motion that I perjured myself in the trial," he said, and denied conspiring with an 18-year-old woman to recruit teenagers for sex — one of the charges on which he was convicted.

"I think you're an honest man and extremely intelligent," Lazzaro told Schiltz. "I am disappointed by many of your rulings."

A young woman who Lazzaro paid for sex when she was underage tearfully described how their encounters caused her to retreat to her bedroom, drink to oblivion and nearly drop out of high school. She said Lazzaro made her feel "worthless."

"I didn't deserve what happened," she said. "I was only 16. ... What he did to me absolutely destroyed me."

Her mother, who stood next to her, told Schiltz that before her daughter met Lazzaro she was "happy, outgoing, excited about the future." Afterward, she said, her daughter "became a shadow of what she used to be."

The young woman has gone through treatment for alcohol abuse, spent time at a halfway house, but continues to be troubled by anxiety and doesn't trust men, her mother said.

The mother of another victim directly addressed Lazzaro. "You stand up here and continue to justify your actions," she said, looking at him. "You even smirk, right now."

Then she accused him of creating "a trail of devastation" for the five girls, including her daughter.

"She was going to kill herself because of you," she said. "My daughter is grieving and wants to die. ... I hate you. You killed a part of my daughter. I hope you rot in hell."

The teen's father expressed anger. "When he gets out, he'll do this to other girls," he told Schiltz. "It is clear he will re-offend if you let him out."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Provinzino said that Lazzaro represented a danger to the public, calling him "every parent's worst nightmare." She said Lazzaro paid tens of thousands of dollars to recruit and exploit minor girls.

Provinzino said that Lazzaro had offered one of the teenagers $1,000 if she promised not to implicate him in any wrongdoing. She added that Lazzaro spent more time at Wednesday's hearing "concerned about his property [being confiscated] than about any of his victims."

"He has accepted no responsibility," she said.

Daniel Gerdts, one of Lazzaro's two attorneys, said after the hearing that he has already filed a request for a new trial and will also be appealing Lazzaro's conviction. He said he believes that prosecutors incorrectly applied the federal sex-trafficking law.

"There were quite a number of complicated legal issues that arose in the case and it's important that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reviews those issues," he said. "We think we will win."

Behavior was 'reprehensible'

Lazzaro's 2021 arrest proved an embarrassment for the Minnesota Republican Party, for which he had become a major donor. Jennifer Carnahan, who had close ties to Lazzaro but denied any knowledge of his criminal activities, stepped down as state GOP chair a week after his arrest.

In handing down the sentence, Schiltz said Lazzaro sought out emotionally vulnerable girls — physically small, unsophisticated and alienated — and lured them with expensive gifts like a $1,300 Prada purse. He sometimes sent them photos showing his wealth and connections to famous and powerful people, and impressed them with the private elevator that took them to his floor.

Schiltz noted that Lazzaro gave the girls Everclear — which has one of the highest alcohol contents of any liquor — to get them as drunk as possible. Some got so drunk, he said, they could not control their bodies, much less exercise good judgment.

Lazzaro maintained the sexual acts were consensual, but Schiltz said the premise of the federal sex trafficking statute is that children under the age of 18 are incapable of consenting to being sex trafficked. To obtain a conviction, he said, the government only needs to prove the victim was under 18.

The judge said the longest sentences should be reserved for the worst traffickers. Lazzaro's behavior was "reprehensible," he said, but didn't involve force or the threat of force. The girls involved were not young children, he said, but teenagers who were a year or two away from turning 18.

But the victims, said Schiltz, were too young to vote, buy a beer in a restaurant, attend an R-rated movie without a parent or guardian, gamble in a casino, get a tattoo — or sell themselves to Lazzaro.

Lazzaro was convicted after a jury trial in March on conspiracy and five separate counts of recruiting and paying the underage girls for sex. He claimed during the trial and in his post-trial brief that the cash outlays he made were gifts, not payments, and that the girls were eager to have sex.

Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that Lazzaro paid Gisela Castro Medina, then an 18-year-old University of St. Thomas student, to recruit other teen victims. Castro Medina, now 21, testified against Lazzaro at his trial and has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction charges. She will be sentenced Sept. 5.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger attended the sentencing but had no comment afterward. A spokeswoman said he won't speak about the case until after Castro Medina's sentencing.

After serving time in prison, Lazzaro will face five years of supervised release and have to undergo sex offender treatment. He must register as a sex offender and get the approval of his probation officer to use a computer while monitored. He also must pay $30,000 to the Domestic Trafficking Victims' Fund.

Gerdts told Schiltz their client is asking to be incarcerated in the federal prison at Sandstone, Minn., which is a low-security facility.

St. Paul attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who represents one of the teenage victims, attended the hearing and said he was pursuing a civil lawsuit against Lazzaro.

Asked how the family was reacting to the sentence, Anderson said: "There is some relief that real justice was done and he's behind bars for 21 years. So, kids will be safe for 21 years."