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From the US DOJ:

U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl Telephone (214)659-8600
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699 Fax (214) 767-2898

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DALLAS, TEXAS
CONTACT: 214/659-8707 AUGUST 6, 2001

Thomas Reedy Sentenced to Life Imprisonment in Child Porn Case

United States Attorney Richard H. Stephens announced that Thomas Reedy, age 37, of Fort Worth, Texas was sentenced today to 1335 years imprisonment (180 months on each of 89 counts to run consecutively), by the Honorable United States District Judge Terry R. Means following his December 2000 conviction by a federal jury on all 89 counts of an indictment that charged him with Sexual Exploitation of Minors, Distribution of Child Pornography, and related charges. Thomas Reedy’s wife, Janice Reedy, age 32, was convicted on 87 of these 89 counts during the same trial and was sentenced today to 14 years imprisonment by Judge Means. The Reedy’s company, Landslide, Inc. was also convicted in December on 89 counts of the indictment and was sentenced today to pay a $6,950,970.28 fine by Judge Means. Thomas Reedy has been in custody since his conviction; Janice Reedy was taken into custody following her sentencing today.

Along with the Reedys, foreign webmasters, R.W. Kusuma and Hanny Ingganata of Indonesia and Boris Greenberg of Russia, were charged with Sexual Exploitation of Minors and Distribution of Child Pornography in the April 2000 indictment. Warrants have been issued for their arrest and the United States will seek extradition. These webmasters designed, launched and maintained websites that offered pictures and movies of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

According to evidence presented at trial, the Reedy’s company, Landslide, Inc., provided a credit card verification service that acted as an electronic gateway to the pictures and movies of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct at Kusuma, Greenberg and Ingganata’s web sites. Internet customers were required to provide a credit card number as well as a charge authorization in order to gain access, by a user name and password provided by Landslide, to the pornographic productions on the web sites. Landslide charged each customer approximately $29.95 per month per site for access to these pornographic images of minors and was the only gateway to these child pornography websites.

The Reedy’s and co-conspirator webmasters, Kusuma, Ingganata and Greenberg agreed to share the money collected for the sale of user names, passwords and access to the child pornography. Testimony at trial revealed that between 1997 and 1998, Landslide netted more than $1 million and the Reedy’s paid Kusuma, Ingganata and Greenberg approximately two-thirds of the money they collected.

Thomas and Janice Reedy ran the Landslide business from their home in Fort Worth, Texas and from an office in northeast Fort Worth. Thomas Reedy ran the business as its President; Janice Reedy was the bookkeeper and made the payments to the foreign webmasters, Kusuma, Ingganata and Greenberg. According to testimony at trial, when investigators searched Landslide’s northeast Fort Worth office in 1999, they found a well-organized operation with over a dozen employees including a computer programmer, customer service representative and a receptionist. An investigator testified at trial that Thomas Reedy told him that Landslide provided customers access to approximately 5700 websites that offered a variety of pornography and that between 30 and 40 percent of Landslide’s business came from providing access to websites containing child pornography.

United States Attorney Stephens said, "I’m delighted with this sentence. The Reedy’s lived a life of luxury on the backs of the poor children they exploited. Their conduct mandated the tough sentences they received. "

United States Postal Inspector in Charge Al Holmes stated, "Today’s sentence reflects the serious intention of the United States Postal Inspection Service as well as the Postal Service to stop individuals and companies from trafficking in child pornography. We will continue our efforts to identify and bring cases such as these to the attention of the United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution."

United States Customs Service Resident Agent in Charge Wayne Frandsen said, "Individuals who traffic in child pornography are a plague on our society. The Customs Service will continue to do all that it can to bring these individuals to justice to answer for their crimes."

"Any time the sexual exploitation of children is involved, the FBI will be there," said Danny Defenbaugh, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

United States Attorney Stephens praised the exceptional investigative work of the United States Postal Inspection Service, as well as that of the United States Customs Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dallas Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section provided invaluable legal assistance in the investigation and indictment of this case.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Terri M. Moore and Ronald C.H. Eddins.