Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The owner of CityXGuide.
He pleaded guilty on Aug. He was sentenced Monday to 97 months in federal prison by Chief U. Attorney Chad Meacham. The Justice Department and its partners will not rest until sites like this are eliminated and their creators brought to justice.
Hayes Jr. HSI will not relent until those who conspire in these illegal activities are brought to justice. According to court documents, Mr. Martono admitted that he created, owned, and operated CityXGuide and a suite of related websites, including Backpage. He registered the domain names for several of the sites on April 8, β just one day after the feds shut down Backpage.
Like Backpage, Mr. In plea papers, Mr. Martono admitted that he turned a blind eye to the illegal sex trafficking occurring on CityXGuide. Despite terms of use purportedly forbidding the advertisement of illegal sexual services, CityXGuide and its affiliated websites allowed brothels, pimps, and prostitutes to post hundreds of thousands of advertisements for sexual services, which users could then filter by geography and preference.
Martono then used CardCash, a third party gift card reseller, to exchange these gift cards for U. He used a VPN to mask his IP address while conducting these CardCash transactions, then funneled proceeds though a network of business and personal bank accounts. Despite receiving numerous emails from federal, state, and local law enforcement informing him that CityXGuide and its companion websites were being used to facilitate sex trafficking and child exploitation, he continued to operate those sites in the United States and around the world.
