The sleazy operator of a foot fetish website was hit with federal sex trafficking charges Tuesday for allegedly luring prospective foot models to Big Apple hotel rooms and raping them, prosecutors said.
Jason Khan, 47, already had a 2019 Manhattan rape bust on his rap sheet when the feds picked him up this week on a three-count indictment charging him with sex trafficking by force, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a press release.
“As alleged, Jason Khan lured his victims in under the lucrative promise of being a foot model before he repeatedly and violently sexually assaulted and raped them,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.
“We commend the victims for their courage in coming forward, and we urge anyone else who has been a victim of Khan or knows anything about his alleged crimes to do the same,” Clayton said. “Our investigation is ongoing.”
Kahn owned and operated the foot fetish website FootPadNYC.com from 2019 to 2021, and ran online ads to recruit foot models, asking for applicants “interested in getting paid to have your feet worshiped.”
He then allegedly set up meetings with aspiring models.
“On at least three occasions, Khan deployed this playbook: Scheduling interviews with women who were seeking professional opportunities as foot models and using the promise of this additional income to lure them to Manhattan hotel rooms,” federal prosecutors said.
“Once in the hotel room, Khan raped or sexually assaulted the women.”
He had been accused of a similar attack years earlier, when he was arrested for allegedly luring a blind woman to the Days Hotel on the Upper West Side and sexually assaulting her.
Police said the alleged victim was given “a green gummy” and raped after she got woozy — although the case was later sealed, the DA’s office said Tuesday.
Kahn, who splits time between Albany and Manhattan, is facing a minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison if he is convicted — and a max of life behind bars.
He was arrested after a joint investigation by the US Attorney, the FBI and the NYPD.
“This horrific behavior has no place in our city, and we will not allow predators to prey on vulnerable women,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement. “The NYPD will always protect survivors of sexual assault and work to stop the deception, exploitation, and abuse of traffickers.”
