A Lynn man pleaded guilty to sex trafficking vulnerable women across state lines during the pandemic.

Anthony Coleman, 36, admitted to two counts of benefitting financially from trafficking two women for sex and two counts of persuading and coercing someone to travel to engage in prostitution in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, according to a plea agreement signed by the defendant.

The first charge carries a maximum life sentence while the second has a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars. In exchange for pleading guilty, federal prosecutors are dropping several other sex trafficking charges against Coleman and recommending a 20-year sentence maximum for all four counts.

Prosecutors said Coleman recruited his first victim in March of 2020 after the victim lost her job because of the pandemic shutdown.

Coleman pimped the first victim out to between 10 and 16 clients every day. He also beat the victim, and in once instance held her underwater, threatening to kill her. Coleman also forced the victim to walk outside naked on glass when she disobeyed him.

When the victim tried to leave him, Coleman would steal her belongings or hit her. One time when the victim tried to leave, Coleman gave her a concussion. After an instance when the victim did escape, an April 2024 indictment said Coleman broke into her home and assaulted her.

Coleman recruited a second victim around the same time as the first. The second victim had been kicked out of her home by a family member because of a disagreement about safe COVID practices and was unemployed when Coleman convinced her to come live with him.

“I just want a bitch who we can vibe and get to the bag together,” Coleman texted the victim when trying to recruit her. “You don’t even know the star quality and potential u have. Let me show you please (sic)”

In May 2020, Coleman started selling sex with the second victim. When the second victim told Coleman she wanted to leave, he threatened her family members with violence.

In both cases, the defendant took the victims out of state to prostitute them — to Florida in the case of the first victim and to California in the case of the second. He also took all the profits from their sex work and made them move to his home in Lawrence.

Coleman also coached the women on how to ask clients for payment, organized online advertisements for sex with the victims, and transported the women to and from appointments with clients. In addition to coercing the women to have sex with other men, Coleman also forced them to have sex with him, as well.

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Coleman is scheduled to be sentenced in March and remains in federal custody.