A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on charges of sex trafficking.

Anton Tony Lazzaro was found guilty by a seven-count federal jury of commercial sex acts involving five girls ages 15 and 16 in March 2020, when Lazzaro was 30. The charges carry mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years with a maximum of life in prison.

Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year prison sentence for Lazzaro. They compared Lazzaro to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on federal charges, accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then abusing them at his homes in Florida and New York. The defense asked no more than 10 years.

He’s a sex trafficker,” prosecutor Laura Provinceino said. “Someone who has shown absolutely no remorse. He has accepted no responsibility for his crimes.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz fell in the middle and had harsh words for Lazzaro.

He said that during the trial, Lazzaro only showed sympathy for two people, in front of himself and Jeffrey Epstein. And the judge said he was struck by the soulless, almost mechanical way in which Lazzaro exploited the girls.

It’s almost as if Mr. Lazzaro set up a sex trafficking assembly line, Schiltz said.

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One of the victims called Lazzaro a child predator in court on Wednesday and said she is still troubled by his actions.

I still see him in my nightmares, in my panic attacks, in men in their thirties. Putting Tony behind bars could save so many girls,” she said.

The mother of another victim addressed Lazzaro directly.

The damage you did to my daughter, mentally and emotionally, you didn’t just do that damage to her. You caused it to me and my family and all these victims and all their families,” she said. “You’re standing here and you don’t even care. You justify your actions. I hope you turn red from hell.

The Associated Press usually does not cite victims of sex crimes.

Lazzaro, who has said the allegations against him were politically motivated, insisted he was innocent and denied explicitly paying any of the girls for sex.

I take great offense to the government and courts who think I committed perjury in this trial. … Grooming behavior is the word you used,” he said.” If that’s the case, then I assume that anyone who gives someone a gift, whether it’s a cheap gift or a million dollars, is grooming their partner for sex. ? If that is the standard that would apply, then I don’t know how to apply a standard.

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So said defense attorney Daniel Gerdts

Lazzaro’s legal team was

looking forward to the appeal.

Lazzaro’s 2021 indictment sparked a political firestorm that led to Jennifer Carnahan’s downfall as Minnesota Republican Party chairman.

His co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, who was 19 at the time, formerly headed the College Republicans chapter at the University of St. Thomas. Last year, she pleaded guilty to two charges. She tested against Lazzaro and will be sentenced in September.

Prosecutors argued at his trial that Lazzaro Castro employed Medina, whom he initially paid for sex, to recruit other teens, preferably minors who were white, short, vulnerable or broken. He often sent cars to take the girls to his luxury penthouse apartment at the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, they said.

Gerdts had argued that the government’s bawdy persecution was based on completely baseless allegations. Lazzaro

said has denied paying for sex, saying

the government targeted him for political reasons and because of his wealth.

Carnahan, the widow of the late Republican U.S. Representative Jim Hagedorn, resigned a week after charges against Lazzaro were unsealed. She denied prior knowledge of any wrongdoing by Lazzaro and condemned his alleged crimes. But his arrest sparked outrage among party activists. Allegations surfaced that Carnahan had created a toxic work environment and abused non-disclosure agreements to silence her critics.

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Carnahan and Lazzaro became friends when she unsuccessfully ran for a legislative seat in 2016. He supported her bid to become party chairman in 2017 and attended her wedding to Hagedorn in 2018. They hosted a podcast together for a few months. (Hagedorn died of cancer in February 2022.)

Lazzaro also helped run the campaign of Republican Lacy Johnson, who failed to unseat Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota in 2020.

Photos on Lazzaro’s social media accounts showed him with prominent Republicans, including former President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. He gave more than $270,000 to Republican campaigns and political committees over the years.

Several recipients quickly donated those contributions to charity after the allegations became public, including U.S. Representative Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who received $15,600 but suffered no consequences. Emmer became the House majority whip in January.

The sources of Lazzaro’s wealth are murky. Defense records have established him as an up-and-coming real estate owner and entrepreneur. Items seized from him included a 2010 Ferrari and more than $371,000 in cash. The government estimated his net worth at more than $2 million in a bond report, but said the calculations did not take into account his extensive but hard-to-trace cryptocurrency holdings. It noted that the search turned up multiple types of foreign currency, plus precious metals worth more than $500,000.