7:07 PM, Jul 6, 2011

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/163924/2/James-and-Tiffney-Fedele-sentenced-for-role-in-prostitution-ring-

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KTHV) --  A Fayetteville couple has been sentenced for their role in prostitution and money laundering charges.

James M. Fedele, 38, of Fayetteville was sentenced Wednesday to 33 months of prison time, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine for conspiracy to use an interstate facility to distribute proceeds from prostitution charges and money laundering charges.

James Fedele was also sentenced to 33 months of prison time,  3 years of supervised release and a $5,000 fine for felony possession of firearms.

Tiffney R. Fedele, 39, of Fayetteville was sentenced to 21 months in prison, 3 years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine for conspiracy to use an interstate facility to distribute proceeds from prostitution and money laundering charges.

Five other defendants, James B. Mitchell, also of Fayetteville, Sherrie Havens-O'Donnell, Sherry Mae Seals, William Marshall and Conrad Dickson were sentenced on June 16 and 17.

Mitchell pled guilty to conspiracy to using an interstate facility to distribute proceeds from prostitution and for one count of making a false statement in an application for Social Security.  Mitchell was sentenced to 138 months of prison.

The remaining members of the ring all pled guilty to money laundering charges.  Havens-O'Donnell was sentenced to 46 months in prison, Seals was sentenced to 24 months in prison, Marshall was sentenced to 41 months in prison and Dickson was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

The Fedeles, Mitchell and the other members admitted to running an escort service, which Mitchell owned from July 2003 until his arrest on August 10, 2010.  The escort service actually was a prostitution enterprise, which operated within Arkansas and surrounding states.

Mitchell and the others advertised many escort services through yellow pages in Arkansas and Missouri phonebooks.  Mitchell hired people to answer the service line telephones and set up appointments for the prostitutes.

Mitchell charged customers $200 per hour with women in his service.  He split the fees evenly with the women.  Mitchell also provided credit cards machines for the prostitutes so they could manually run the credit cards for customers.

Mitchell hired other individuals to assist with the collection of the prostitution proceeds. Mitchell and the others used bank and other financial institutions to conduct financial transactions with the prostitution money, both to conceal and disguise the root of the money.