MyRedBook - busted and seized by the Feds

[GUNNER]

The site has been around for years and operates much the same way Backpage does.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...ution-arrests/

[Vendzilla]

I remember when I found an ex GF on there! LOL

[GUNNER]

Originally Posted by Vendzilla

I remember when I found an ex GF on there! LOL

Did you book a private with her?

[PornDiscounts-V]

Crazy how these people don't move out of the country.

Also crazy: if you are a lowly piss ant dish washer working in a non extraction island nation why don't you create one of these sites and be a baller?

[lezinterracial]

Originally Posted by vvvvv

Crazy how these people don't move out of the country.

Also crazy: if you are a lowly piss ant dish washer working in a non extraction island nation why don't you create one of these sites and be a baller?

I think it would take some money to get it started. I think there would be opportunities in gambling too.

I kind of liked the movie Runner, Runner. Check it out.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Just heard this story on the news tonight...Mountain View is only about 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Bay Area sex worker advocates expressed concern today that the seizure could affect sex workers? livelihood and safety?including those doing legal work.

Oakland-based sex worker rights advocate Sabrina Morgan said that MyRedBook helped sex workers to screen and protect themselves from potentially violent clients and that its absence could put already vulnerable women in danger.

She said that in addition to providing listings, MyRedBook enabled sex workers to talk to clients before meeting them and to talk to other sex workers about potential clients for referrals.

The site contained both a public forum and a private forum just for workers.

?Clients on the site would need references,? and a good reference from another worker was an indication that a particular client was safe to see, she said.

?Taking the site offline means that type of networking and resource sharing is pushed further underground,? Morgan said.

While other websites offer similar services, there is nothing remaining like MyRedBook, Morgan said, as others charge a fee to create listings and operate on a national scale.
Kristina Dolgin, a spokeswoman with the Bay Area chapter of the Sex Worker Outreach Project, said that the loss of MyRedBook as a free resource for sex workers could put an already marginalized community further at risk.

?They?re going to have less safe interactions and be put into situations where they can be put at risk of violence,? Dolgin said. ?To those who can?t afford switching to another website, this is completely detrimental.?

ADG

[GUNNER]

Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

Just heard this story on the news tonight...Mountain View is only about 25 miles south of San Francisco.

From the news footage it seems as if they were living in a lower-middle class apt complex.

Not exactly big time ballin'

[pornlaw]

I wonder if this seizure had more to with taxes than prostitution....

[_Richard_]

Originally Posted by pornlaw

I wonder if this seizure had more to with taxes than prostitution....

yea i was wondering the same

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by GUNNER

From the news footage it seems as if they were living in a lower-middle class apt complex.

Not exactly big time ballin'

The apartment images are of the girlfriend's place in Rocklin (near Sacramento). The house was quite nice from what I could see on the news last night. Houses on the Mountain View street home that was busted are priced around $750k.

The guy running the operation had made dozens of deposits for years of just under $100,000 each time.

Omuro and Lanoce were both charged with interstate travel in the aid of a racketeering enterprise while Omuro was charged with 24 counts of money laundering. Omuro is also accused of using numerous aliases to move funds from the site into his control. The indictment seeks the forfeiture of more than $5 million in assets including bank accounts at four different banks, investments, a BMW and a Mini Cooper.

Anyway, some good comments from readers:

I think prostitution NEEDS to become decriminalized. There are so many victims out there who probably want to go to the police for help but they do not because they are scared they are going to get in trouble themselves.

If it was decriminalized those who are being victimized would go to the police for help and have no fear of getting in trouble. Then the police can get to the real criminals who are the Pimps forcing some of those woman and girls to do this.

The only people that need to be criminally charged are the major criminals and sickos forcing woman to do this against their own will and if it was decriminalized those victims would no longer be scared to go to the police for help.

This is about money laundering - but not the kind you think. This is ALL about local cops and the FBI getting Federal dollars for so-called "human trafficking", in a time when many municipalities and govt agencies are feeling general cutbacks.

Want to stop a terror plot, or put away some gang kingpins? Fine, but do that on your own dime. Want a cakewalk job arresting people doing little more than making sex safer, and providing jobs to the marginalized? Oh, here's a couple million bucks!

It's not so much that these guys want to be pursuing these cases over more serious/dangerous ones... But, like everyone else, they're just following the money. The real crime here is that we let this happen, and continue to encourage those in power to improve "on paper" crime numbers, rather than going out and protecting communities.

Okay so now there will be pimps making young girls work on the streets..... Wtf... RedBook made it easier to identify who was fake, who was dangerous and ESPECIALLY who were the idiots trying to pimp girls out. All of that information was shared between the ladies who did their job in a respectful manner and gave a fuck about providing good service to keep regular clients....

There needs to be some way to eliminate the sex trafficking from these sites without punishing the women who not only use websites like RB to properly screen & report men to stay out of danger, but also those who have families to support and actually enjoy what they do.

To all the sanctimonious bible thumpers out there who think that prostitution is immoral - if you ever had sex with your husband and your husband ever gave you something of negotiable value (like, for example, a diamond ring), then you are morally as guilty of prostitution as an escort.

Prostitution and sex between consenting adults is not immoral and should not be illegal. If you feel differently, then you have had your morals twisted and defiled by your relgious beliefs.

Furthermore, just in case someone is confused about this, prostitition is not child slavery and child slavery is not prostitution. Child slavery/kidnapping/trafficking is immoral and illegal. A lot of people are uncomfortable with sex in general, and they love to justify their discomfort by making a false equivalence between paying for sex and kidnapping kids.

ADG

[rufriter32]

cnn. com/2014/06/25/justice/fbi-website-child-sex-crackdown/

They crossed the line,... Typical easier to find charges, laundering, racketeering etc..

[Tofu]

I am only concerned about ad rates for other escort sites, going up.

[mineistaken]

Originally Posted by rufriter32

cnn. com/2014/06/25/justice/fbi-website-child-sex-crackdown/

They crossed the line,... Typical easier to find charges, laundering, racketeering etc..

I highly doubt they (living in the states and having such a known website) would have anything to do with underage prostitution. I am certain they deleted all the underage ads.

[JA$ON]

Running anything Escort related from inside the US = bad move

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by rufriter32

cnn. com/2014/06/25/justice/fbi-website-child-sex-crackdown/

They crossed the line,... Typical easier to find charges, laundering, racketeering etc..

The article cites the bust as part of a child-sex crackdown, however the indictment doesn't have any charges related to child sex.

One person responded to the article cited with this:

According to the FBI and the victim pimp organization Polaris Project, there are between 100,000 to 300,000 NEW minors being trafficked into prostitution every year- and these liars also claim that the average lifespan of a prostitute is about 5 to 7 years, meaning that if there are 100,000 new ones each year coming in, there are 500,000 existing victims (if 5 years is our lifespan) and 700,000 existing victims if it is 7 years and there are only 100,000?. multiply those numbers by 3 and that's what they claim are being trafficked every year?

and YET, they manage to find a mere 168 in a week, in 106 cities using how many agents to rescue them?

Last year, it was 76 cities, 105 rescues, 3,900 agents- so that is hmmm?. 37 agents per child rescued, 1.4 victims per city, which shows that either the cops are incredibly inept OR the Polaris Project and other abolitionists are LIARS?

and if the cops are able to find victims by referencing the websites, WHY WOULD THEY CLOSE THEM DOWN, rather than continue to monitor them and rescue those they find online?

Because it is ALL BS? ALL OF IT- there are MORE COPS who rape minors than who are 'rescued' every year through this 'operation BS" - oops, I mean- 'operation cross country'? search for PEDOPHILES AND CHILD PORN- THE COPS, JUDGES, DAs, FBI AGENTS, SECRET SERVICE AGENTS AND OTHER GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES WHO CAN'T KEEP THEIR HANDS OFF MINORS to see the long and horrific list of cops who rape minors?.

There are instances where people advertising on MyRedBook were in fact pimping underage prostitutes:

The San Francisco Examiner today had a better article. 24 year old pimp Vanessa Obligacion was arrested for selling a 17 year old girl on Redbook out of a Redwood City motel called the Goodnite Inn. Then two more guys were arrested for selling 2 16 year olds using Redbook from a Travel Lodge in South San Francisco. The pimps were named Mahender Singh, 40, and Heleln Singh, 22. The article was posted today. So don't be all sanctimonious about putting people out of work. I'm glad they shut Redbook down if this is typical of their business model.

However, as this person noted:

So if someone sells a stolen car on Craigslist, does that make Craigslist guilty of selling stolen goods? You have to prove that Myredbook was trying to facilitate such activity or turning a blind eye. OTOH, my understanding was that the RB members were pretty vigilant about chasing off pimps, drug abusers, and anyone involved with minors.

ADG

[adultmobile]

Originally Posted by JA$ON

Running anything Escort related from inside the US = bad move

According to some law interpretation, running a cam site it is same as running an escort site, I would not be surprised some US prosecutor will seize streamate + mfc one day.

[fuzebox]

Damn shame. That site has been around forever and was one of the best, especially for norcal.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

I guess the Feds better bust YouTube next (tons of escort ads on there):



Google the phone number in the above video for other escort co-conspirators and a surprise:



ADG

[pamon]

Craig's list still has escort listings, where are the feds there. How about packpage? Something missing in this story

[GUNNER]

Originally Posted by pamon

Craig's list still has escort listings, where are the feds there. How about packpage? Something missing in this story

It's very likely, as Michael Fattorosi stated, that "this seizure had more to with taxes than prostitution"