A Virginia lawyer faces a sex-trafficking charge after allegedly coercing several teenage girls into having sex with him by promising to be their “sugar daddy,” according to new court documents.
An arrest warrant for Matthew Erausquin—a founding partner of Consumer Litigation Associations and an Air Force veteran—was issued on Nov. 16 in Arlington that accuses him of paying at least six girls to engage in sexual acts since 2017.
In an affidavit unsealed Thursday in Virginia federal court, investigators state the girls, who met Erausquin when they were minors, went to three different high schools—and were promised money, gifts, flights, and drugs in exchange for having sex with Erausquin. Investigators allege the lawyer gave one of the girls, who is currently in the hospital after suffering a mental breakdown, a “sexually transmitted virus.”
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All of the girls who spoke to authorities say the 45-year-old attorney was not only aware of their age when they first started communicating, but he didn’t care and continued to shower them with gifts and dinners in exchange for sex and explicit videos. The girls also stated that Erausquin preferred threesomes, even telling one that he could “do the one on one thing in normal dating” but does this “to be a little edgier.”
“I gave him my real bday he said he didn’t wanna do the math,” one of the girls allegedly said in 2018 to her friend, who was also receiving money in exchange for having sex with Erausquin.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia declined The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Erausquin, his defense lawyer, and his law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to his firm’s bio, Erausquin is a consumer rights lawyer who’s handled cases about mortgage servicing disparities and automobile fraud, as well as class-action lawsuits to enforce the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Prior to his legal career, Erausquin was an Air Force officer and completed his service and law degree while “serving at the Defense Information Systems Agency’s communications and operations branch at the Pentagon.”
Authorities say they were first tipped off to Erausquin’s illegal activities last May, when a 17-year-old told the Fairfax County Police that an adult male was “paying multiple high school girls for sex” and that her friend was one of his victims. The teen said the 45-year-old had “paid $1,000 to engage in threesome sexual activity” with two girls, identified as Victim I and Victim GB in the affidavit, and that the first girl had also received a “Tiffany’s bag.”
The affidavit states that Victim GB disclosed to her friend she had a rich “sugar daddy” who bought her “an expensive camera and provided her with weed.”
Investigators say they interviewed several of the girls who were allegedly abused by Erausquin, including one identified as Victim J—who stated she met Erausquin when she was 16 years old on a “sugar daddy” website. The teenager said that while her profile said she was 18, per the website’s user guidelines, she used “actual pictures of herself on the site.”
“According to Victim J, Erausquin asked her for a video of her sucking on something and offered her $200 dollars for the video,” the affidavit states, noting that the teenager completed the request, received the money, and met the lawyer in-person soon after.
She said she brought her 16-year-old friend, identified as Victim G, along, and Erausquin paid for an Uber to take the two girls to an Arlington shopping center, where the trio had lunch.
“According to Victim G, they were nervous because they were underage and they were worried Erausquin would notice,” the affidavit states. “Victim G stated they had a prearranged plan to discuss college related things to make them seem older. Erausquin did not ask them a lot of questions about their personal life.”
After the meal, the lawyer took the two teenage girls to his apartment, where they “talked for a bit” before having a threesome in his bedroom, according to the affidavit. Afterward, Erausquin paid them and called a car to pick them up.
Victim J and Victim G told investigators they went to Erausquin’s house at least six times and were paid each time for the sexual encounters. The two girls also allege Erausquin provided them with chocolate marijuana edibles and Victim G said she received a Sephora gift card that Erausquin “had originally purchased for a female he had previously been dating.”
In July 2018, after her junior year of high school, Victim G moved out of Virginia, and Erausquin agreed to fly her back for the holidays at Victim J’s request. At that point, the lawyer asked for her date of birth.
When Victim G, who was 18 years old by then, told Erausquin her actual birthdate, the lawyer “did not express any anger or shock,” the affidavit states. Around the same time, Victim J also hinted at her age, but the 45-year-old allegedly “indicated...that he kind of knew their ages the entire time and liked it.”
During her trip home, Victim G says she went to Erausquin’s apartment and had sex with him in exchange for “several hundred dollars cash” that was placed in a Chanel gift card envelope.
The two girls also told investigators that Erausquin was engaging in sex with “three underaged girls during the same visit,” including one of their friends, identified in court documents as Victim S.
“The investigation has revealed evidence that thereafter, Victim S and Victim GB were ubered to Erausquin’s residence for commercial sexual activity when both girls were 16-years-old,” the affidavit states. Investigators say Victim GB learned about Erausquin through Victim S, who told her friend she “did something while with Erausquin she was ‘not proud of’ and got a lot of money for it.”
Victim GB said that during her first meeting with Erausquin, she had “silver bracketed orthodontic braces on her top and bottom teeth” and that the lawyer seemed to know a lot about her—including her dad’s name. After the sexual encounter, Victim GB said she received $800.
The affidavit details the lengths Erausquin allegedly went to in order to keep the girls silent. When Victim GB threatened to go to the police, the lawyer allegedly convinced her that she and her friend would get in trouble because “he could sue.” Victim J also told investigators the lawyer told her it “would be stupid for them to try to extort him because having sex with a minor was not that big of a deal compared to extortion,” the affidavit states.
Investigators state that in April 2019, Victim I was lured to the lawyer’s house on two separate occasions with Victim GB when she was 16 years old. During the first encounter, Erausquin allegedly gave her a glass of wine before the group engaged in a threesome. Afterward, they each received $500.
“Victim I recalled that during one of those times she was at his apartment, Erausquin had multiple boxes at his residence containing purses from Tiffany’s,” the affidavit states. “He instructed both Victim I and Victim GB to pick out a box. Both girls received a Tiffany’s purse.”
At one point, Victim I found out she’d contracted an STI, which Victim GB told her to keep quiet about. In a text conversation with Erausquin in May 2019, Victim J told the lawyer that Victim I “has herpes” and she felt betrayed, according to the affidavit.
“I wasn’t aware that you and [Victim GB] were meeting with someone else and it honestly feels like a breach of trust and the fact that there is a possibility of me having the disease justifies my displeasure with the situation,” Victim J texted, according to the affidavit. “With this, I think it would be wise to end our arrangement here. I appreciate your generosity and the time we’ve spent together.”
In one conversation between Erausquin and Victim J last July, the lawyer brushed off the severity of his crimes—but then insisted “none of this is worth risking my career for,” the court documents say.
“I have parents in their late 70s that are relying on me to take care of them,” he allegedly wrote.
