A young David Kaufman sometimes used money in an attempt to make friends, purchasing gifts and food for classmates to win their affection.
It’s a detail included in court documents describing the now 44-year-old Maryland man’s middle-class upbringing in Northeast Pennsylvania, how he battled weight issues that affected his self-esteem and how the sale of his grandparents’ successful business, Jerry’s Sports Center, generated considerable wealth delivered through a trust that afforded Kaufman “financial freedom.”
Federal prosecutors say Kaufman used his wealth to victimize minor and young-adult men, paying teens for child sexual abuse material and coercing some victims to travel to a penthouse condominium at the Baltimore Four Seasons to engage in sex acts.
Kaufman was arrested April 16 after a grand jury indicted him on two counts of “knowingly persuading an individual to travel in interstate commerce to engage in prostitution,” alleging he enticed an 18-year-old to travel from Massachusetts to Maryland for paid sex. A superseding indictment unsealed last month added counts against Kaufman and another man, Darren Zaldivar, 19, of Ludlow, Massachusetts, whom the grand jury charged with transporting a person to engage in prostitution.
Both men are charged with conspiracy to engage in the sex trafficking of a minor, while Kaufman is charged with a count of sex trafficking a minor.
“(The) government has amassed evidence that Kaufman has been victimizing minor males and young adults ranging in age from 14-20 by paying the minors for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and coercing and enticing some of them to travel to Baltimore and elsewhere to engage in sex acts with him, which he videorecords,” the government wrote in an April detention brief. “Kaufman typically provides his victims with gifts and money in exchange for CSAM and sex acts.”
While Kaufman was initially detained after his arrest, U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni signed an order May 30 setting strict conditions for his release into the custody of a third-party custodian living in Jefferson Twp., Lackawanna County. Kaufman was required to surrender his passport and can have no contact with minors, among other conditions.
The order came weeks after Kaufman’s lawyer filed a motion making the case for his release pending trial, a filing that included a sworn declaration from his brother, Jerry Kaufman, and other documents noting the family’s ties to Jerry’s Sports Center, the sporting goods wholesaler sold to a private equity firm in about 2009.
It also details how David Kaufman spent liberally on expensive luxuries and lavish meals after becoming wealthy — treating friends to opulent experiences and high-end goods “just like he did with other students in school as a child.”
The charges
While David Kaufman was originally indicted on prostitution counts involving an adult victim — the sex trafficking and conspiracy counts came later when the superseding indictment was unsealed — the federal government’s mid-April motion for his pretrial detention referenced then-unindicted conduct involving minors. In arguing that Kaufman was a flight risk with significant financial means, federal prosecutors wrote that the government “has a good faith basis to seek charges … for sex trafficking of a minor.”
The prostitution-related charges stem from alleged criminal encounters in February and March 2024, when prosecutors say a then-18-year-old identified only as “Victim 1” and a then-minor identified only as “Witness 1” flew from Massachusetts to Maryland to visit and stay with Kaufman, who paid for the plane tickets.
On the flight, “Witness 1 told Victim 1 that he (Victim 1) might have to ‘do stuff’ to get ‘full benefits’ from Kaufman,” the government’s motion reads. “Victim 1 understood that to mean that he would have to engage in sex acts with Kaufman in exchange for things of value, such as fancy dinners and nice gifts. At the time of that trip, Victim 1 was a senior in high school. Witness 1 was 17 years old, and Kaufman was 42 years old.”
During the trip, Kaufman told Victim 1 and Witness 1 to shower together while he watched and later, after dinner, performed oral sex on both Victim 1 and Witness 1 while they were intoxicated, the government alleges.
“In a recent interview, Witness 1 confirmed having commercial sex with Kaufman in Baltimore when Witness 1 was 17 years old,” the motion reads, claiming later that Kaufman gave Victim 1 and Witness 1 an “allowance” for engaging in sex acts. “In addition to the payment that Witness 1, then a minor, would receive for his own sex acts with Kaufman, he also would receive an extra $500 or $1,000 for recruiting Victim 1 to travel with him to engage in sex with Kaufman.”
The motion goes on to describe subsequent travel in March 2024 where the two teenagers, then both 18, visited Kaufman at the Baltimore Four Seasons and engaged in sex acts with him despite Victim 1 allegedly telling Kaufman he didn’t want to. It also claims the government has evidence showing “Kaufman and others victimized multiple minors (Minor 1, Minor 3, Minor 4, and Minor 5) by engaging or attempting to engage in sex acts with them in exchange for money and gifts, and/or purchasing or attempting to purchase CSAM from them.”
All of those minors were between 14 and 17 when victimized, and all were or are friends of Witness 1, prosecutors said.
“The government also has evidence indicating that some of the known minors sent nude images or videos to Kaufman and that Kaufman paid them for those interviews,” according to the government’s motion.
It argued he posed “a serious danger to children and young adults,” accusing him of behavior both predatory and manipulative.
“Kaufman used his immense means and privilege to entice children and young men to enter or remain in his sphere, and then threatened self-harm should they not be willing to set their comfort aside to satisfy his needs,” the motion notes.
Local ties
Attorneys for Kaufman filed in early May a motion to reopen an April detention hearing at which a federal magistrate judge ordered him detained pending trial. In making the case for his release, they argued Kaufman had no prior criminal convictions and that the government had failed to prove that he posed a serious risk to flee or obstruct justice.
They also argued the government presented no evidence at the detention hearing and that the government’s detention request “relies on multiple levels of inadmissible hearsay” and on the “largely uncorroborated testimony” of Witness 1.
Their motion included a wealth of information from Jerry Kaufman’s declaration, which says the brothers grew up outside of Scranton “in a small town called Dalton” and lived in an 1800s farmhouse. It portrays David Kaufman as an intelligent, generous and well-behaved child who grappled with weight problems, had low self-esteem and used money to try to make friends.
David Kaufman, his brother recalls, would purchase gifts for classmates to win their affections and buy food for other students so they’d eat with him. It was their grandparents who sent both siblings to boarding school, Jerry Kaufman said in the sworn document, noting David attended Goucher College in Baltimore, returned to Northeast Pennsylvania after graduating and worked as a computer systems analyst for his grandparents’ company.
The sale of Jerry’s Sports Center and revenue from trusts set up as a result of the sale ultimately allowed both brothers “financial freedom,” Jerry Kaufman’s declaration notes.
Kaufman’s grandfather, Jerry Warsky, died in September 2004, with his obituary describing him as an avid sportsman, generous philanthropist and chairman and CEO of J.S.C. Enterprises Inc. Warsky’s wife, Frances Rosalie Warsky, died in July 2018.
“She … started her career working alongside her husband, Jerry, at their gas station/bait shop in Montdale,” her obituary notes. “Later they founded Jerry’s Sports Center with locations throughout the country.”
Both obituaries list David and Jerry Kaufman as the couple’s grandsons.
“After David became wealthy, in that he received a monthly income from his Trust, David began spending a lot of money,” Jerry Kaufman said in the declaration. “He would buy expensive luxuries like cologne, luggage, and an expensive mattress. He also started dining at lavish restaurants.”
Court documents filed by David Kaufman’s attorneys indicate the money he received through his trust “changed him,” noting “David’s generosity towards others (an attempt to purchase friendships and company) increased significantly.”
Jerry Kaufman’s declaration also notes that a friend of David Kaufman served as trustee for his trust, which allowed David “access to more than just the income the Trust produced each month.” Businessman Andrew Kupchik Sr., a longtime family friend who became Jerry’s Sports Center’s chief financial officer in 1990, took over as the sole trustee after Kaufman’s arrest.
In a separate sworn declaration to the court, Kupchik wrote that Jerry’s Sports Center was sold to a private equity company on Nov. 16, 2009, but that he continued to work for the Kaufman family after the sale. The trust in question was created for David Kaufman’s benefit in 2016, per Kupchik’s declaration.
“My limited knowledge and understanding is that David’s friend who served as Trustee before me had discretion to provide David with money as needed, and that he did so upon David’s request,” Kupchik wrote. “As Trustee, I would abide by any restrictions set by the Court and distribute money only as needed, including to pay for his attorneys’ fees, medical bills and any other necessities.”
Pretrial release
U.S. District Judge Mastroianni ultimately ordered Kaufman’s release into the custody of a custodian living in Jefferson Twp., where he’ll stay pending trial.
Among the strict conditions of his release, Kaufman is not to possess any weapons, consume alcohol or drugs, have any contact with minors or use any internet-capable devices unless authorized by U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services. He’s also prohibited from having visitors other than his mother or father, who was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Kaufman is allowed a maximum of $2,000 a month in funds transferred from his trustee to his custodian, per the conditions of his release.
If convicted, Kaufman faces the possibility of decades to life in federal prison.