Florida Man Ordered to Pay More Than $300,000 in Restitution for Sex Trafficking Victims

MIAMI – A Lake Placid man has been ordered to pay $327,735 in restitution to the victims he trafficked for sex. The restitution order was entered on Oct. 6 by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon.

Shannima Yuantrell Session, also known as “Shalamar,” 47, was previously sentenced to life in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and three counts of sex trafficking of a minor. The charges stemmed from Session’s exploitation of nearly a dozen women and girls.

“Human trafficking is one of the most vicious crimes imaginable—it strips victims of their freedom, dignity, and humanity,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “This restitution order ensures that the survivors of Session’s cruelty receive some measure of justice for the years of exploitation and abuse they endured. Our Office will continue to pursue traffickers relentlessly and stand with the victims they sought to silence.”

According to evidence presented during the nine-day trial in September 2024, Session compelled his victims to engage in thousands of commercial sex acts between July 2011 and July 2013, and again between February 2016 and February 2019. Session lured women and girls facing unstable housing, substance abuse, or neglect with false promises of legitimate employment and housing assistance—promises calculated to gain their trust, expose their vulnerabilities, and ultimately allow him to control and exploit them.

Session forced victims to engage in commercial sex acts in squalid trailers housing migrant workers and in local orange groves. He used food, shelter, and drugs to maintain control, exploiting victims’ addictions and dependence. Evidence showed that Session used a firearm to intimidate and threaten his victims, and that he often resorted to brutal violence—punching and beating them with weapons, and, in one instance, taking victims to a nearby lake where he held two of their heads underwater and threatened to drown them if they disobeyed.

At trial and at the restitution hearing, the government demonstrated that Session made approximately $327,735 by compelling the victims’ coerced commercial sex acts. The restitution order requires Session to repay those illicit proceeds to his victims.

U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones and Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI, Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

The FBI Miami, Fort Pierce Resident Agency, investigated the case, with assistance from the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Hoover for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Leah Branch and Matthew Thiman of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit prosecuted the case.

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-14074.

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