Man faked training certificates for prostitutes working in massage parlors, feds say

A man is going to prison after prosecutors said he created and sold fake massage therapy training certificates for prostitutes working in several New Jersey massage parlors.

This helped “disguise prostitution activities as legitimate massage services” and allowed prostitutes to obtain massage licenses from the state without proper training, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a July 11 news release.

Naresh Rane, 68, was sentenced to nearly three years in prison following a guilty plea in connection with facilitating prostitution from 2013 through 2014 while working with a former city councilman to do so, the release said.

McClatchy News contacted Rane’s attorney for comment on July 12 and was awaiting a response.

Rane regarded himself as a businessman and used his ownership of Axiom Healthcare Academy, a now-temporarily closed and purported massage therapy training school, to provide certificates to anyone seeking a massage license without training — as long as they paid him $1,000 to $2,600, according to prosecutors.

To further establish the phony certificates as legit, he created fake class transcripts listing training hours that were never completed at Axiom Healthcare Academy and false grades for his clients, according to an indictment.

Prosecutors said he was willing to provide false documents to the New Jersey Board of Nursing, Massage Bodywork and Somatic Therapy.

Rane worked with a former Westwood city councilman between November 2013 and March 2014 by giving him 10 fake massage therapy training certificates, the release said. Rane admitted knowing the certificates would be used in massage parlors offering prostitution.

This former councilman, Robert W. Miller, handed the certificates to 10 prostitutes working in massage businesses located throughout northern and central New Jersey, according to prosecutors. Miller pleaded guilty in 2016 after giving dozens of fake massage therapy training certificates to 25 different massage parlors from 1997 until 2013, the attorney’s office said in a news release in February 2016.

Months later, Miller, who was facing prison time, and his wife were found dead, according to police, NJ.com reported.

After Rane serves his 33-month prison term, it will be followed by three years of supervised release, the attorney’s office said.

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