Doctor drove to hotel to pay for sex acts with 14-year-old in Massachusetts, feds say
A Boston anesthesiologist was ready to pay for sex acts with a 14-year-old girl when he drove to a Massachusetts hotel with $250 in cash nearly two years ago, according to federal prosecutors.
While working at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Sadeq Ali Quraishi responded to an online post advertising commercial sex acts with two young girls — who didn’t exist, prosecutors said.
What Quraishi didn’t know was that the advertisement was shared by undercover Homeland Security Investigations agents as part of a sting operation to catch potential child predators, according to prosecutors.
In November 2022, the doctor drove to the hotel in Waltham, met with the undercover agent and “confirmed he had the money to pay for the commercial sex act,” prosecutors said.
He accepted a key card to a room, believing that the 14-year-old would be inside, and was then arrested with $250 that he withdrew from an ATM, according to prosecutors.
Now, a federal jury has found Quraishi, 47, guilty of attempted sex trafficking of a child, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in an Oct. 11 news release.
Quraishi’s defense attorneys didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 14.
“Fortunately, this was a law enforcement operation and no real child was involved, but sadly that is not always the case,” U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement. “We are actively prosecuting the men and women who traffic adults and kids for profit, but in order to make a real dent in this pernicious conduct, we also must go after the demand part of the equation – the people who are trolling the internet and trying to purchase sex with little kids.
Before Quraishi’s arrest, prosecutors said he visited a website known for advertising commercial sex to arrange a sexual encounter, according to court documents.
When he responded to the advertisement posted by HSI agents that offered sex acts with 12- and 14-year-old girls, Quraishi “tried to confirm that the agents were not law enforcement officers” and “then inquired about the prices,” a trial brief says.
He decided he wanted to engage in sex acts with the fake 14-year-old for $250, then became hesitant about the purported teen’s age while messaging the agents, prosecutors wrote in the brief.
“He suggested that he would not have paused if the girl was 16 years old or older,” the trial brief says.
Within minutes, “Quraishi reconfirmed his desire to have sex with the 14-year-old,” prosecutors wrote.
A search of Quraishi’s phone revealed evidence that he participated in the commercial sex trade and previously looked at hundreds of commercial sex advertisements online, according to the brief.
“As a society, we put our trust in doctors and hold them to the highest ethical standards. Quraishi betrayed that trust by seeking out and attempting to pay to sexually abuse a child,” Michael J. Krol, the special agent in charge of HSI in New England, said in a statement.
Quraishi was put on leave by Tufts Medical Center, a teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine, on Nov. 3, 2022, when the facility learned of his arrest, Tufts Medicine spokesman Jeremy Lechan confirmed to McClatchy News Oct. 14. He was fired the next day, according to Lechan.
Quraishi is set to be sentenced on Jan. 28, according to prosecutors. He is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is asking anyone who may have information about suspected commercial sex trafficking in Massachusetts to contact USAMA.VictimAssistance@usdoj.gov.
Online human trafficking resources can be found on the Justice Department’s website here.
This story was originally published October 14, 2024 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Doctor drove to hotel to pay for sex acts with 14-year-old in Massachusetts, feds say."
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