A Missouri man who duped more than two dozen women into having sex by telling them they were auditioning for lucrative roles in pornography was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
Mario Ambrose Antonie, 34, of Raymore, conned the women by promising them up to tens of thousands of dollars to star in skin flicks after they first “auditioned” on camera. He assumed various bogus roles as a recruiter, talent agent, photographer and camera man for several fake companies and modeling websites, including “Playboy Worldwide” and “Playboy Asia,”
WHO-HD reports.
Prosecutors said in a memo seeking the 10-year sentence that Antoine orchestrated the “depraved scheme” on women throughout the Kansas City metro area. And if they complained, as some women did, Antoine sent pictures of them engaging in sex acts to their relatives or friends,
the Kansas City Star reports.
Antoine, a former photographer previously convicted of scamming people out of wedding day pictures, was
named in a 21-count indictment in October, charging him with rape, sodomy and fraud. According to the indictment, Antoine started his latest scheme in August 2011 with several online pseudonyms and fake Facebook profiles.
District Judge Beth Phillips said she couldn’t recall a more “outrageous” case and characterized Antoine’s harassment and intimidation of his victims as “icing on the cake.”
Prosecutors said Antoine, while posing as a woman named “Nikki,” would reach out to women on Facebook to ask if they were interested in modeling. He would then promise them thousands of dollars in profits and claim that their nude photos would only be available on private websites overseas. Antoine then met the women and produced phony documents to make his businesses seem authentic, even making the female victims sign release forms and contracts before filming sex sessions with them.
“He told me I had to audition … and do several different sex acts [with him], which I did,” one victim, now 25,
told WDAF.
The woman said she was just 17 when she fell victim to the scheme, with Antoine promising her up to $15,000 to star in a pornographic movie. Antoine told her she passed the bogus audition, but needed to wait until her 18th birthday to actually be on film. He later tried to back out of their deal when the money never showed up, she told the station.
“Oh, you don’t get the money because you broke a rule of the contract by telling someone what you did,” she recalled.