Did the FBI and ICE bust a sex-trafficking ring organized by a Harvard or Georgetown professor who recruited students to perform sex work on a luxury yacht off Miami? No, that's not true: The YouTube channel where the claim originated disclosed in the video's description it does not "depict real events or represent any official agency." Lead Stories found no media reports or any official records discussing the purported raid.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok, where it was published on December 31, 2025. The caption read:
FBI & ICE Raid Luxury Yacht off Miami -- 34 Students Trafficked by Harvard Professor | US Military
This is what the clip's thumbnail looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@talkflowlive)
In the video, the voice-over began:
In America, we trust our educators to guide the next generation, not sell them. June 8, 2024, 47 miles off the coast of Miami, Florida, 34 young women, ages 18 to 24, held on a luxury yacht, forced into prostitution for wealthy clients. This wasn't a foreign trafficking ring operating in international waters. This was a sex trafficking empire run by a Harvard-educated professor using her academic position to recruit elite university students and deliver them to billionaires on yachts.
Then, the name of the alleged suspect appeared on the screen:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@talkflowlive)
The narration continued:
Her name was Dr. Yasmin Abdi-Mohamed. Her credentials? Ph.D. in gender studies from Harvard, tenured professor at Georgetown University, published author, TED Talks speaker with 4 million views, member of Sen. Ilhan Omar's Women's Empowerment Advisory Council. Her crime? Operating a high-end escort service that trafficked honor students to luxury yachts, private islands and penthouse suites, while disguising it as a mentorship program for young women...They were recruited by Dr. Abdi-Mohamed through what she called the Global Women's Leadership Initiative, a mentorship program.
The story, however, was made up. It originated with a video (archived here) posted on YouTube on December 30, 2025. The description included an acknowledgment that it was not real:
** Disclaimer: All videos on Military Antenna are fictional and dramatized for creative purposes. They do not depict real events or represent any official agency. Scenarios are inspired by open-source research and used under Fair Use for education and commentary.
A Google search (archived here) for the keywords "professor AND (harvard OR georgetown) AND '34 students' AND yacht AND trafficking" found no statements from the FBI or ICE about such an operation. Additional searches on Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) also found no relevant media reports.
Had the video documented a real-life event, federal court materials available online via PACER would have likely contained a paper trail, but Lead Stories found no legal documents related to a person named in the video:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of pacer.gov)
Lead Stories searched for traces of the "professor," but didn't find any confirmation of the person's existence. Google Scholar (archived here) showed no academic research published under that name, and a search (archived here) of American educational institution websites revealed that one person with that name was a minor in 2017 (archived here). The state of their residency defines a minor as a person below the age of 18 (archived here). That means that even within the next nine years, the real "Yasmin Abdi-Mohamed" would be unlikely to have enough time to earn a bachelor's degree, complete a Ph.D. program, fulfill all additional postdoctoral research requirements and accumulate enough years of experience to get a permanent professorship. According to the Georgetown University Faculty Handbook (archived here), it takes seven academic years to make it from a full-time faculty member to a tenured professor.
