Milwaukee prostitution crime ring; man pleads no contest, fined

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MILWAUKEE - The last of six men charged in what Milwaukee County prosecutors described as a prostitution ring pleaded no contest and was fined on Friday.

Pleas and sentencings

In Court:

Court records show 56-year-old Christopher Riegg, an investment banker, pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. He was fined $1,500.

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Prosecutors initially charged all six men with misdemeanor pandering solicitation. One of the six, 55-year-old Travis Schwantes, was charged with additional crimes.

Schwantes, a former public defender who once ran for a judgeship, pleaded guilty to one felony and two misdemeanors in August. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, two years of probation and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service.

Court records show 60-year-old William Green, a former attorney, pleaded guilty to pandering solicitation and was sentenced to nine months of probation in June.

In July, 51-year-old Milwaukee firefighter David Ornstein pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and was fined $600. George Easton, a 77-year-old retired municipal judge, pleaded guilty to two such counts and was fined $1,000 in May. 

Leroy Stewart, a funeral director in Oak Creek, pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. The 54-year-old was fined $1,200 in April. 

Prostitution ring investigation

The backstory:

Hundreds of pages of search warrants were unsealed last December, and FOX6 News learned the investigation into the prostitution ring began years earlier. 

The scope of what investigators uncovered included accusations of extortion. It centered on an apartment building at 29th and Kilbourn in Milwaukee.

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Dig deeper:

A woman, Roya Sedghi, was charged in fall 2023 with keeping a place of prostitution. Court records said she billed herself as the "Iranian Princess." Records show Sedghi registered "Iranian Princess Fetish Services LLC" with the state in March 2022. 

Court records show it all began to unravel a month later when a woman came forward to investigators in Dodge County, detailing what happened, and with whom, in that apartment building.

Sedghi pleaded guilty in October 2024 to keeping a place of prostitution. She was sentenced to one year in prison and three years of extended supervision.