US District Judge Freda Wolfson ordered a 280-month prison term for Matthew
Thompkins, the upper range of the 10 to 24 years he faced under a plea
agreement he struck with federal prosecutors last year.
Thompkins, who went by the nickname "Knowledge," ran a sprawling sex network by
training young prostitutes, housing them in apartments and homes in New York
and New Jersey and hiding millions of dollars in illegal proceeds in their
names.
Prosecutors said it was extremely lucrative: the women charged up to $1,000 a
night for sex, with all of it being passed onto Thompkins. One prostitute
earned $222,000 in a year, authorities said.
When FBI agents searched one of Thompkins' homes in South Jersey in 2005, they
found a foot-high trophy declaring him the "International Pimp of the Year." It
was given to him by his counterparts in the sex-trade industry.
Thompkins, a Bronx native and former letter carrier, resigned from the Postal
Service after he plead guilty to conspiring to launder money and transport
minors across state lines for prostitution last year.
His arrest came after a year-long probe that involved investigators from the
FBI, New Jersey State Police, the US Postal Service Inspector General's office
and local police.
