A gang who used a nightclub to launder more than £12.3m worth of clients' payments for sex have been sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison.
According to a Met Police statement, the four-strong gang used the East Village Nightclub in Shoreditch to set up bogus hospitality companies in order to launder money from clients.
The group also charged taxi drivers fees for seeking potential customers outside strip clubs and bringing them to the brothel, police said.
One of the ring leaders, 50-year-old Ashley Sheldrick, of Wrottesley Road, Brent, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manage a brothel for the purposes of prostitution and conspiracy to convert, transfer or remove the proceeds of crime.
He was sentenced at the Inner London Crown Court , on Tuesday (June 23), to eight years in prison.
Sheldrick's accomplice, 46-year-old Terrence Hart, of Upper Hamilton Road, Brighton, was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Anilton Soares, 41, a Brazilian national of no fixed address, was sentenced to five years in prison.
And 33-year-old Cassia de Sousa Rodrigues, also a Brazilian national of no fixed address, was jailed for three years.
Both of the Brazilian nationals will be automatically deported after serving their sentences, police said.
Speaking after the sentencing, investigating officer Detective Sergeant Geoff Donoghue said: "Our investigation started over two years ago. At the time, the use of bogus companies laundering vice money via chip and pin machines was very new.
"It served to speed up the money laundering process and further enabled brothel users under the influence of drink and or drugs to be defrauded.
"Our evidence suggests that in three years, the group made around £12.3m.
"We are now seeking to recover as much of that money as possible, having already identified 44 properties in which Sheldrick has an interest, totalling £6.3m."
