SLC hotel manager sentenced for prostitution, money laundering after jury returns mixed verdict

SALT LAKE CITY — A manager of a Salt Lake motel is spending time in jail after being accused, along with the motel's owner, of encouraging prostitutes to use their rooms for business.

Charging documents accused Sameer Syed and the owner, Rezvan Saisani, of using the Salt City Inn Motel at 1025 N. 900 West in Salt Lake City for commercial sex and drug trafficking, citing surveillance and undercover operations.

Syed, 35, was sentenced on Aug. 12 to one to 15 years in prison for money laundering, a second-degree felony, and zero to five years in prison for exploiting prostitution, a third-degree felony. Third District Judge Todd Hilbig suspended those sentences, instead ordering him to spend 180 days in jail and three years on probation. He was given credit for 92 days he already spent in jail.

A jury found Syed guilty of the charges on May 14, but found him not guilty of following a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony, and two additional counts of exploiting prostitution, a third-degree felony.

Charging documents said the Statewide Enforcement of Crimes by Undocumented Residents task force in the Utah Attorney General's Office, in conjunction with Salt Lake police, began investigating the Salt City Inn during the summer of 2019 after multiple tips claimed both Syed and Saisani encouraged the illegal activity to benefit financially.

Three other charges originally filed against Syed were dismissed ahead of trial, including two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, which were dismissed in 2021 against Syed but remained against Saisani at that point, and one count of failing to remove a public nuisance, a class-B misdemeanor, which was dismissed by prosecutors immediately before trial.

Saisani, 61, pleaded guilty in March 2023 to the same charges Syed was found guilty of. He also pleaded guilty to failing to remove a public nuisance, a class-B misdemeanor, accepting a plea deal that dismissed each of his other charges.

Saisani was given the same suspended prison sentences from 3rd District Judge Douglas Hogan, in addition to a 180-day jail sentence for the misdemeanor, of which 90 days were suspended. He was also ordered to serve 60 days of home confinement.

He has already completed his three years of probation; at that point, his second-degree felony conviction was reduced to a third-degree felony.

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