Former Tufts anesthesiologist convicted of trying to pay for sex with underage girl

A federal jury on Thursday convicted a former anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center of attempted sex trafficking of a child, acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office announced Friday. 

Sadeq Ali Quraishi, 47, was indicted in November 2022 after responding to an online ad offering sex with two underage girls. Quraishi, then a practicing anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, texted with undercover agents posing as the seller of the two girls, according to officials. 

According to Levy, Quraishi agreed to pay $250 for a sex act to be performed by a 14-year-old girl. Soon after, Quraishi withdrew cash from an ATM, and drove from his Boston home to a Waltham hotel to meet with the seller. 

Once at the hotel, Quraishi told the undercover agent that he had the money to pay for the sex act. He then accepted a keycard to the room he believed the 14-year-old girl would be located, according to officials. During that meeting, Quraishi was arrested and found to have exactly $250 in cash, Levy said.

“As a practicing physician, Sadeq Quraishi was in a position of trust and expected to possess a strong ethical and moral compass. Instead, he engaged in extended negotiations with a purported trafficker and ultimately agreed to buy sex with a 14-year-old girl,” Levy said. “Fortunately, this was a law enforcement operation and no real child was involved, but sadly that is not always the case.”

Quraishi is due to be sentenced on Jan. 28 and faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, a maximum sentence of up to life in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000.

In addition to prosecution of those who traffick victims, Levy said his office is going after “the demand part of the equation — the people who are trolling the internet and trying to purchase sex with little kids.”

“I hope that every coward behind a keyboard who is thinking about engaging in the rape of the child under the auspices of a commercial transaction thinks twice — you may very well be talking to an undercover federal agent. Don’t do it. If you do, you are looking at a minimum of 10 years or more behind bars,” Levy said.

Levy’s office asked that anyone experiencing or aware of commercial sex trafficking contact [email protected].