Music producer Mally Mall sentenced to 33 months in prison for running prostitution business

Music producer Mally Mall has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for operating a prostitution business over the span of 12 years.

Mally Mall, real name Jamal Rashid, was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty in 2019 to one count of use of an interstate facility in unlawful activity.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Rashid faced a sentence of one to 33 months in prison.

His attorney David Chesnoff asked for his client to be sentenced to 24 months, citing his work with helping the homeless and teenagers in crisis.

However, Judge Gloria Navarro imposed the maximum sentence as recommended by the prosecution, as well as three years of supervision after release, and advised him no longer to work with teenagers as she was ‘uncomfortable’ with this.

Rashid, 45, said in court in Las Vegas: ‘I respectfully ask you to accept the fact that since 2014, I have not engaged in any criminal activity. I truly apologise to the court, the government and, most importantly, the women involved.’

According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, Rashid ‘operated a high-end prostitution business that transported victims across the United States’, using paid websites ‘to advertise the victims for prostitution purposes’ between April 2002 and September 2014.

Prosecutors said that Rashid ‘exploited hundreds of victims’ through manipulation, ‘imposing rules and threatening them so that they would prostitute for him.’

These rules included the women not being allowed to date, having to inform him of their whereabouts, and asking permission to attend the gynaecologist, while they were encouraged to ‘get tattoos of him to demonstrate their loyalty, and led many of them to believe he would advance their careers in show business’.

The victims were either considered ‘independent contractors,’ who paid Rashid around half of what they earned through prostitution, or ‘priority girls’, who would turn over nearly all of their earnings to Rashid, according to court documents. 

In exchange, Rashid provided housing in one of several of his properties and the use of a high-end vehicle.

Rashid has until 2pm on August 13 to surrender.

His attorneys told People: ‘Jamal accepted full responsibility for his conduct that occurred almost a decade ago. He will serve his sentence and looks forward to returning to the music industry.’

Mally Mall has worked with artists including Justin Bieber, Usher, Tyga and Sean Kingston in his career as a music producer and rapper. 

He is also known for his appearances on Love & Hip-Hop: Hollywood, appearing as the former boyfriend of star Nikki Mudarris. 

His collaboration with Tyga and Wiz Khalifa, Molly, reached number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2013. 

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