BOSTON (WWLP) - A former doctor at a Boston hospital was convicted in a Boston federal court Thursday of one count of attempted sex trafficking of a child. Sadeq Ali Quraishi, 47, was an anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center. According to investigators, in November 2022 Quraishi responded to an online advertisement offering commercial sex with two young girls, who were undercover agents posing as the seller of the girls. North Adams man sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife After texting details and agreeing to pay cash for the encounter with a 14-year-old girl, Quraishi got $250 from an ATM, drove to a Waltham hotel where he met with the alleged seller, and was given a key card to a room. He was arrested in the room with the money. “The trafficking of women and minors for commercial sex is ever present in our communities and sex buyers from all walks of life drive this demand. 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. Fortunately, this was a law enforcement operation and no real child was involved, but sadly that is not always the case.” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. “We are actively prosecuting the men and women who traffic adults and kids for profit, but in order to make a real dent in this pernicious conduct, we also must go 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.” “As a society, we put our trust in doctors and hold them to the highest ethical standards. Quraishi betrayed that trust by seeking out and attempting to pay to sexually abuse a child,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol for Homeland Security Investigations in New England. “HSI will never relent in our pursuit of bringing child predators to justice.” Quriashi is scheduled to be sentenced on January 28, 2025, and could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison or a maximum sentence of up to life in prison, a term of supervised release of at least five years, and a fine of up to $250,000. If you or someone you know may be impacted or experiencing commercial sex trafficking, please contact [email protected]. Local News Headlines Fall weather boosts tourism, business at local farms Statehouse Spotlight: A bill and a lawsuit Hatfield launches $3.8M water and sewer upgrade project State employees target of cyberattack WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.