WASHINGTON – Jong Woo Son, 23, a South Korean nationwide, was indicted by a federal grand jury within the District of Columbia for his operation of Welcome To Video, the biggest baby sexual exploitation market by quantity of content material. The nine-count indictment was unsealed immediately together with a parallel civil forfeiture motion. Son has additionally been charged and convicted in South Korea and is presently in custody serving his sentence in South Korea. A further 337 website customers residing in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington State and Washington, D.C. in addition to the UK, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Eire, Spain, Brazil and Australia have been arrested and charged.
Performing Govt Affiliate Director Alysa Erichs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI), Assistant Legal professional Basic Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Division’s Legal Division, U.S. Legal professional Jessie Okay. Liu for the District of Columbia, and Chief Don Fort of IRS Legal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement.
“Kids are our most weak inhabitants, and crimes similar to these are unthinkable,” mentioned HSI Performing Govt Affiliate Director Alysa Erichs. “Sadly, advances in know-how have enabled baby predators to cover behind the darkish internet and cryptocurrency to additional their felony exercise. Nevertheless, immediately’s indictment sends a robust message to criminals that irrespective of how refined the know-how or how widespread the community, baby exploitation won’t be tolerated in the US. Our complete justice system will cease at nothing to forestall these heinous crimes, safeguard our youngsters, and produce justice to all.”
“Darknet websites that revenue from the sexual exploitation of kids are among the many most vile and reprehensible types of felony conduct,” mentioned Assistant Legal professional Basic Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Division’s Legal Division. “This Administration won’t enable baby predators to make use of lawless on-line areas as a defend. Immediately’s announcement demonstrates that the Division of Justice stays firmly dedicated to working intently with our companions in South Korea and around the globe to rescue baby victims and produce to justice the perpetrators of those abhorrent crimes.”
“Kids around the globe are safer due to the actions taken by U.S. and international legislation enforcement to prosecute this case and get better funds for victims,” mentioned U.S. Legal professional Jessie Okay. Liu. “We are going to proceed to pursue such criminals on and off the darknet in the US and overseas, to make sure they obtain the punishment their horrible crimes deserve.”
“By means of the subtle tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CI particular brokers have been capable of decide the situation of the Darknet server, determine the administrator of the web site and in the end monitor down the web site server’s bodily location in South Korea,” mentioned IRS-CI Chief Don Fort. “This largescale felony enterprise that endangered the protection of kids around the globe isn’t any extra. Whatever the illicit scheme, and whether or not the proceeds are digital or tangible, we’ll proceed to work with our federal and worldwide companions to trace down these disgusting organizations and produce them to justice.”
In response to the indictment, on March 5, 2018, brokers from the IRS-CI, HSI, Nationwide Crime Company in the UK, and Korean Nationwide Police in South Korea arrested Son and seized the server that he used to function a Darknet market that solely marketed baby sexual exploitation movies obtainable for obtain by members of the location. The operation resulted within the seizure of roughly eight terabytes of kid sexual exploitation movies, which is among the largest seizures of its sort. The pictures, that are presently being analyzed by the Nationwide Heart for Lacking and Exploited Kids (NCMEC), contained over 250,000 distinctive movies, and 45 % of the movies presently analyzed comprise new pictures that haven’t been beforehand recognized to exist.
Welcome To Video provided these movies on the market utilizing the cryptocurrency bitcoin. Sometimes, websites of this sort give customers a discussion board to commerce in these depictions. This Darknet web site is among the many first of its sort to monetize baby exploitation movies utilizing bitcoin. In reality, the location itself boasted over a million downloads of kid exploitation movies by customers. Every person acquired a novel bitcoin handle when the person created an account on the web site. An evaluation of the server revealed that the web site had a couple of million bitcoin addresses, signifying that the web site had capability for a minimum of a million customers.
The companies have shared knowledge from the seized server with legislation enforcement around the globe to help in figuring out and prosecuting clients of the location. This has resulted in leads despatched to 38 nations and yielded arrests of 337 topics around the globe. The operation has resulted in searches of residences and companies of roughly 92 people in the US. Notably, the operation is accountable for the rescue of a minimum of 23 minor victims residing in the US, Spain and the UK, who have been being actively abused by the customers of the location.
Within the Washington, D.C.-metropolitan space, the operation has led to the execution of 5 search warrants and eight arrests of people who each conspired with the administrator of the location and have been themselves, customers of the web site. Two customers of the Darknet market dedicated suicide subsequent to the execution of search warrants.
Amongst the websites customers charged are:
- Charles Wunderlich, 34, of Scorching Springs, California, was charged within the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute baby pornography;
- Brian James LaPrath, 34, of San Diego, California, was arrested within the District of Columbia, for worldwide cash laundering; and was sentenced to serve 18 months in jail adopted by three years of supervised launch;
- Ernest Wagner, 70, of Federal Manner, Washington, was arrested and charged within the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute baby pornography;
- Vincent Galarzo, 28, of Glendale, New York, was arrested and charged within the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute baby pornography;
- Michael Ezeagbor, 22, of Pflugerville, Texas, was arrested and charged within the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute baby pornography;
- Nicholas Stengel, 45, of Washington, D.C., pleaded responsible to receipt of kid pornography and cash laundering and was sentenced to serve 15 years in jail adopted by a lifetime of supervised launch;
- Eryk Mark Chamberlin, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible to possession of kid pornography and is pending sentencing;
- Jairo Flores, 30, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible within the District of Massachusetts to receipt and possession of kid pornography and was sentenced to serve 5 years in jail adopted by 5 years of supervised launch;
- Billy Penaloza, 29, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible within the District of Massachusetts to possession and receipt of kid pornography. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 22, 2019;
- Michael Armstrong, 35, of Randolph, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible within the District of Massachusetts, to receipt and possession of kid pornography. He was sentenced to serve 5 years in jail adopted by 5 years of supervised launch. Restitution will probably be decided at a future date;
- Al Ramadhanu Soedomo, 28, of Lynn, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible to possession of kid pornography and was sentenced within the District of Massachusetts (Boston), to serve 12 months and sooner or later adopted by 5 years of supervised launch;
- Phillip Sungmin Hong, 24, of Sharon, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible within the District of Massachusetts (Boston), to receipt and possession of kid pornography and is pending sentencing;
- Eliseo Arteaga Jr., 28, of Mesquite, Texas, pleaded responsible within the Northern District of Texas to possession of prepubescent baby pornography. He’s pending sentencing;
- Richard Nikolai Gratkowski, 40, of San Antonio, Texas, a former HSI particular agent, was arrested within the Western District of Texas. Gratkowski pleaded responsible to the indictment charging one rely of receipt of kid pornography and one rely of entry with intent to view baby pornography. Gratkowski was sentenced to serve 70 months in jail adopted by 10 years of supervised launch, and ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution to seven victims and a $10,000 evaluation;
- Paul Casey Whipple, 35, of Hondo, Texas, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, was arrested within the Western District of Texas, on expenses of sexual exploitation of kids/minors, manufacturing, distribution, and possession of kid pornography. Whipple stays in custody awaiting trial in San Antonio;
- Michael Lawson, 36, of Midland, Georgia, was arrested within the Center District of Georgia on expenses of tried sexual exploitation of kids and possession of kid pornography. He was sentenced to serve 121 months in jail adopted by 10 years of supervised launch following his plea to a superseding data charging him with one rely of receipt of kid pornography;
- Kevin Christopher Eagan, 39, of Brookhaven, Georgia, pleaded responsible to possession of kid pornography within the Northern District of Georgia;
- Casey Santioius Head, 37, of Griffin, Georgia, was indicted within the Northern District of Georgia for distribution, receipt, and possession of kid pornography;
- Andrew C. Chu, 28, of Garwood, New Jersey, was arrested and charged with receipt of kid pornography. These expenses stay pending;
- Nader Hamdi Ahmed, 29 of Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey, was arrested within the District of New Jersey, for sexual exploitation or different abuse of kids. Ahmed pleaded responsible to an data charging him with one rely of distribution of kid pornography. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 1, 2019;
- Jeffrey Lee Harris, 32, of Pickens, South Carolina, pleaded responsible within the District of South Carolina for producing, distributing, and possessing baby pornography;
- Laine Ormand Clark Jr., 27, of Conway, South Carolina, was arrested and charged in U.S. District Court docket in South Carolina Division for sexual possession of kid pornography;
- Jack R. Dove III, 38, of Lakeland, Florida, was arrested within the Center District of Florida for knowingly receiving and possessing visible depictions of minors engaged in sexually specific conduct;
- Michael Matthew White, 39, of Miami Seaside, Florida, was arrested within the Southern District of Florida for coercion and enticement;
- Nikolas Bennion Bradshaw, 24, of Bountiful, Utah, was arrested within the State of Utah, and charged with 5 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and was sentenced to time served with 91 days in jail adopted by probation;
- Michael Don Gibbs, 37, of Holladay, Utah, was charged within the District of Utah with receipt of kid pornography and possession of kid pornography;
- Ammar Atef H. Alahdali, 22, of Arlington, Virginia, pleaded responsible within the Japanese District of Virginia to receipt of kid pornography and was sentenced to serve 5 years in jail and ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution;
- Mark Lindsay Rohrer, 38, of West Hartford, Connecticut, pleaded responsible within the District of Connecticut to receipt of kid pornography and was sentenced to serve 60 months in jail adopted by 5 years of supervised launch;
- Eugene Edward Jung, 47, of San Francisco, California, was indicted within the Northern District of California on possession of kid pornography and receipt of kid pornography;
- James Daosaeng, 25, of Springdale, Arkansas, pleaded responsible to possession of kid pornography and was sentenced within the Western District of Arkansas (Fayetteville) to serve 97 months in jail adopted by 20 years of supervised launch;
- Alex Daniel Paxton, 30, of Columbus, Ohio, was arrested and indicted in Franklin County Ohio Court docket of Widespread Pleas for pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor;
- Don Edward Pannell, 32, of Harvey, Louisiana, pleaded responsible within the Japanese District of Louisiana for receipt of kid pornography. He’s pending sentencing;
- Ryan Thomas Carver, 29, of Huntsville, Alabama, was arrested and charged below Alabama State Regulation. He was charged federally within the Northern District of Alabama with possession of kid pornography. His case is pending in Huntsville, Alabama;
- Andrew Buckley, 28, of the UK, pleaded responsible to 10 offences within the UK of possession and distribution of indecent pictures of kids, possession of utmost and prohibited pictures and possession of a category A drug. He was sentenced to serve 40 months in jail for the distribution of indecent pictures and possession of sophistication A medication. Buckley can be topic to an indefinite Sexual Hurt Prevention Order;
- Kyle Fox, 26, of the UK, pleaded responsible to 22 counts together with rape, sexual assault, and sharing indecent pictures, and was sentenced to serve 22 years in jail; and
- Mohammed Almaker, 26, of Fort Collins, Colorado, was arrested within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), charged with KSA Regulation involving the endangerment of kids. He’s awaiting judicial proceedings in furtherance of felony expenses.
A forfeiture criticism was additionally unsealed immediately. The criticism alleges that legislation enforcement was capable of hint funds of bitcoin to the Darknet website by following the stream of funds on the blockchain. The digital foreign money accounts recognized within the criticism have been allegedly utilized by 24 people in 5 nations to fund the web site and promote the exploitation of kids. The forfeiture criticism seeks to get better these funds and, in the end by the restoration course of, return the illicit funds to victims of the crime.
The costs within the indictment are merely allegations, and all defendants are presumed harmless till confirmed responsible past an inexpensive doubt in a court docket of legislation.
The worldwide investigations have been led by HSI, IRS-CI, and the NCA. The Korean Nationwide Police of the Republic of Korea, the Nationwide Crime Company of the UK and the German Federal Legal Police (the Bundeskriminalamt), aided and coordinated with their parallel investigations. The Division of Justice’s Workplace of Worldwide Affairs of the Legal Division offered vital help.
