A man in his twenties, who is a U.S. resident and ran a sexually exploitative content-sharing site used by an average of 20,000 people per day, has been arrested by the South Korean police.
On May 27, the Cyber Crime Investigation Unit 2 of the North Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency announced that they had arrested and detained a man on charges of violating the Child and Youth Sexual Protection Act, the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, and the Act on the Promotion of Information and Communications Network Usage and Information Protection.
The suspect is accused of operating 14 sexually exploitative content-sharing sites using overseas servers from the end of 2020 until May of this year and distributing over 100,000 pieces of child and adolescent sexually exploitative content and illegally filmed materials.
He used generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) to promote his site by creating naked composite pictures of virtual characters. Among the folders he synthesized, pictures of famous Korean celebrities were found. Fortunately, the celebrities were not synthesized into the naked pictures.
The site operated by the suspect had an average daily visitor count of about 20,000 users. He received payment in virtual currency from adult products and illegal gambling site companies, placing banner ads on his site and earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in criminal profits.
The police confirmed that the suspect was a U.S. resident through international cooperation and seized his overseas server company. While tracking his movements in cooperation with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), they apprehended him at Incheon Airport when he briefly stopped over in Korea on May 10 on his way back to his residence in the U.S. from the Philippines.
According to the investigation, the suspect lives in California and used his professional computer knowledge to evade police crackdowns for four years, distributing sexually exploitative content acquired through illegal routes like the dark web. He carefully hid his criminal activities from family and acquaintances during this process.
After confirming the suspect’s specific criminal profits, the police plan to apply for asset seizure and seize his illegal money laundering funds in the U.S. in cooperation with HSI.
A police official said, “Digital sex crimes are serious crimes that destroy the daily lives of victims,” adding, “We will relentlessly track down operators of illegal adult sites and make sure they are judged by the law.”
