Posted on 07/12/2020 7:41:04 PM PDT by ransomnote
The website CityXGuide.com — a leading source of online advertisements for prostitution and sex trafficking that users described as “taking over from where Backpage left off” — has been seized and its owner charged in a 28-count federal indictment, announced United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.
Wilhan Martono, 46, was indicted on June 2 on one count of promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking, one count of interstate racketeering conspiracy (facilitating prostitution), nine counts of interstate transportation in aid of racketeering (facilitating prostitution), and 17 counts of money laundering. He was arrested on June 17 in Fremont, California by Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Secret Service.
Shortly after the defendant’s arrest, CityXGuide was replaced with a splash page notifying users that the website had been seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pursuant to a warrant.
According to the indictment, Mr. Martono allegedly netted more than $21 million off a suite of illicit websites promoting prostitution and sex trafficking. He allegedly registered the domain names for several of the sites just one day after the FBI shut down Backpage.com, then the internet’s leading source of prostitution and sex trafficking advertisements.
Despite Terms of Use purportedly forbidding the advertisement of illegal sexual services, CityXGuide and its affiliated websites (Backpage.co, CAPleasures.com, and BodyRubShop.com, among others) allegedly allowed brothels, pimps, and prostitutes to post hundreds of thousands of advertisements for sexual services, which users could then filter by geography and preference.
In correspondence with Mr. Martono, one of his CityXGuide advertisers noted that the website was “taking over from where Backpage left off.”
CityXGuide and its companion websites allegedly allowed advertisers to select from a pre-populated list of “intimate activities,” then add nude photographs, descriptions, work hours, methods of payment, and contact information for the women being advertised. In order to secure premium placement, the websites offered paid “upgrades,” which could be purchased in Bitcoin or in exchange for gift cards from Walmart, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Amazon, and other retailers. Mr. Martono allegedly used CardCash, a third party gift card reseller, to exchange these gift cards for U.S. currency.
Mr. Martono allegedly took steps to conceal his online activity by routing website traffic through an IP address in Europe, using a VPN to mask his IP address while conducting CardCash transactions, and funneling his proceeds through a network of business and personal bank accounts. (At the time of Mr. Martono’s arrest, the Department of Homeland Security seized millions of dollars from accounts controlled by Mr. Martono.)
CityXGuide, which served clients across the globe, included a list of 14 “Favorite Cities,” including Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and Boston.
Law enforcement has identified numerous minor victims in CityXGuide advertisements, including a 13-year-old Jane Doe recovered in North Texas in November 2019.
“As soon as DOJ shut down one despicable site, another popped up to take its place,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. “Like the owners of Backpage, this defendant made millions facilitating the online exploitation of women and children. The Justice Department will not rest until these sites are eliminated and their owners held accountable for their crimes.”
“This case is a harsh reminder of the ruthlessness of human traffickers and lengths to which they go, including victimizing women and children, to make a profit,” said Ryan L. Spradlin, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office. “HSI maintains its unwavering commitment to investigate these heinous crimes, rescue victims, and prosecute the offenders to the fullest extent of the law.”
“The Secret Service remains committed to investigating and pursuing those responsible for cyber-enabled financial crimes. Although the explosive expansion of the cyber domain has forced us to develop innovative ways of conducting these types of investigations, our proven model remains the same,” said Secret Service Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Office William Smarr, adding, “This investigation is an excellent example of a partnership between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies working together to successfully prosecute numerous violations of federal statutes. There are real innocent victims due to these crimes. The Secret Service also thanks the Northern District of Texas United States Attorney’s Office for their aggressive support.”
“I’m proud of our team who, with our federal partners, relentlessly pursued this investigation for more than a year. Today, we have made a significant impact on one of the world’s largest digital marketplaces for prostitution and sex trafficking. We know many lives will be saved through this joint effort,” said Michael C. Miller, Chief of Police for the Colleyville Police Department.
An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Martono is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in federal prison.
Mr. Martono was charged in part under FOSTA, a law passed in the wake of the Backpage scandal in April 2018 that allows the federal government to prosecute websites that facilitate sex trafficking.
The North Texas Trafficking Task Force conducted the investigation, led by Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office, the United States Secret Service, and the Colleyville Police Department, with assistance from HSI’s El Paso and San Jose Field Offices as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant United States Attorneys Sid Mody, Rebekah Ricketts, and John de la Garza are prosecuting the case.
I searched for MSM coverage. Most of the google listings for the search term CityXguide on the first 2 pages of results were for porn sites.
I was surprised to see an article via CBS. Better still, it specifically identifies child sex trafficking as a key activity for CityXguide and that it was a replacement for BackPage.com.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/backpage-replacement-cityxguide-taken-down-federal-prosecutors/
"CityXGuide listed 14 "Favorite Cities," including Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and Boston. All 14 cities ban prostitution, so Martono would try to cover up the money trail by using bitcoin or a third-party gift card reseller called CardCash. Advertisers would pay in gift cards from places like BestBuy, Walmart, Amazon, Lowes and others, and he then exchanged them, funneling the money into personal bank accounts."
On page 2 of the search results, I see that NYDaily news also had an article on it.
“An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Martono is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.”
Got it, pimps, child molesters, ‘Net scammers are all presumed innocent.
But the cops involved in the death of a Black druggy thug are know to be guilty without any need of an actual trial.
Whatever you think of prostitution it is gallingly hypocritical for the government to spend so much time and energy persecuting it FOR THE CHILDREN while we throw parades for drag queen library readings and sex reassignment surgery for minors. If we say we don’t care what two consenting adults do with each other we should mean it. Even for a heterosexual male schlub looking to pay a hooker. Crimes against minors should be handled just like crimes in online forums and elsewhere are handled. Go after the perpetrator, not use it as an excuse to shut down the entire place. If someone sold their daughter on facebook they would arrest that person not shut down all of facebook. Frankly I think they are exaggerating the sex trafficking angle which is far better handled by policing border and not as part of an antisex crusade.
Personally, I’m of the mind that if you want to sell sex, as it’s the only asset some people have, that’s fine as long as you’re an adult and you consent to physical health testing on a regular basis (i.e. Weekly, monthly). Pimps, however, need to be specifically outlawed, along with trafficking.
If there was an organization like the Companion Academy from Firefly (forgetting the official name; Mal called it the, “Whore Academy”), that’d actually be good. Those Companions were seriously cultured, and considered part of the elite.
So that’s what happened to it.
p
while we throw parades for drag queen library readings and sex reassignment surgery for minors
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who is “we”? The DOJ?
Without laws to prosecute libarary readings an sex assignment surgery, Homeland Security and the DOJ can’t get involved.
Slavery and rape are worse than library readings and sex reassignment surgery for minors. The latter ARE damaging, but not felonies at this time and I support the rule of law.
If you want to stop sex trafficking by far the best way is to do it at the border rather than chasing them around once they’re in America. Shutting down all prostitution also drives demand underground. Notice how you never heard of sex trafficking very often until the Left took over as the main opposition to prostitution. Frankly it seems very exaggerated as you hear tales every other day of thousands of enslaved concubines around every street corner but digging deeper you find that the vast majority of slavery in america is actually sweatshop labor and a lot of the so called women sex slaves who move back and forth from home and foreign countries didn’t even consider themselves as such. What you’re left with is this weird subconscious societal hangup over heterosexual men being able to satisfy their urges shared by both sides of the aisle so there is this literal underground campaign to make it impossible for heterosexual men to have sex by making it a minefield in the traditional way where you’ll be accused of rape or be raped through divorce. And impossible for men to pay for it.
Most of the prostitutes are not capable of real consent, because the criminals who own them have them addicted to drugs. Many of them are first introduced to drugs by way of tainted drinks. Drug dealers and pimps should get the death penalty.
Yeah, if I were the President
Of this land
I’d declare total war on the pusher man
I’d cut him if he stands
I’d shoot him if he runs
I’d kill him with my razor
And my Bible and my gun
God damn the pusher man.
Hoyt Axton (An Oklahoma boy)
The best to stop this abomination or at least put a serious dent in it is to execute not just the trafficker but the customer as well.
If there is no supply, the demand will wither on the vine.
(And give each party the chance to repent because this sin is especially hateful to the Lord and is expressly singled out for an exceptionally severe judgment.)
Matt 18:6 and Luke 17:2
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.