TRENTON, N.J.- A letter carrier from New York has admitted controlling a widespread prostitution network that brought in millions of dollars and shuttled women across the country, according to a published report.
Matthew Thompkins, 37, who was widely known by his nickname “Knowledge,” was arrested last December after a federal investigation into child prostitution.
Thompkins pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom in Trenton Friday to charges of conspiring to launder money and transporting minors across state lines for prostitution. He could receive between ten and 24 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 2.
“He was the master pimp,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richardson told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday’s newspapers.
Prosecutors say Thompkins had about 60 women who he sold for sex. He then collected almost all of their earnings, using it to finance a lavish lifestyle that included a fleet of luxury cars and a three-story house in Galloway Township.
The young prostitutes were often housed in apartments and homes in New Jersey and New York, and sometimes Thompkins would trade the women with other pimps around the country.
As part of his plea deal, Thompkins will resign from his letter carrier job which he’s held since 1994. Richardson said the postal service wanted to fire Thompkins years ago, but they could not find him.