Child porn: Byelorussian case
Businessmen extradited from Europe entered pleas in N.J. The probe has led to 1,200-plus arrests.
Newark, N.J. - Two leaders of a Belarus company admitted in federal court yesterday that it had processed $2.5 million to $7 million in membership fees that gave subscribers around the world access to child-pornography Web sites.
The guilty pleas from Regpay Co. Ltd. president Yahor Zalatarou and technical administrator Aliaksandr Boika were the latest developments in a global investigation that has led to more than 1,200 arrests. Protect your children online now! Nearly all of those arrested, including about 200 people in the United States, are charged with buying child-pornography subscriptions from the Regpay sites, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The arrests led to a Florida company that has admitted laundering proceeds from the memberships on behalf of Minsk-based Regpay by transmitting the money to accounts in Latvia.
Zalatarou and Boika are among a handful of key individuals in the scheme, according to investigators. Their company was “one of the biggest players in the world doing this at the time,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Ortiz said.
Zalatarou and Boika each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark to money-laundering conspiracy, which carries up to 20 years in prison and a fine as much as double the value of the funds involved.
Zalatarou also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to transmit child pornography by computer, which carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison and a fine as much as double the enterprise’s profits. Boika pleaded guilty to conspiring to advertise child pornography, which carries a sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison and a fine as much as twice the profits.
Zalatarou, 26, and Regpay marketing director Alexei Buchnev, 27, were flown to Newark in January after being extradited from France, where they had been in custody since July 2003. Boika, 30, was extradited from Spain in June. Buchnev pleaded guilty Feb. 16 to conspiring to transmit child pornography by computer.
All three men are being held without bail. A fourth company official remains at large.
In court, Zalatarou said the scheme began in July 2002 through a company he called Trustbill. Two months later, when authorities told him that the payments were for child pornography and that he should stop, the company was renamed Regpay, he said.
Boika said Regpay operated a now-defunct Web site that advertised memberships to child-porn sites. The site described and rated 11 of the sites, Ortiz said.
Zalatarou also said he had hired Connections USA Inc., based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to process credit-card transactions on behalf of Regpay customers. In May, Connections USA pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and agreed to forfeit $1.1 million and dissolve its business.