FBI, China team up vs child porn

With cooperation from China, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shut down 18 Chinese-language child pornography websites run by a man in New York. The FBI said the man was recently indicted for the websites, which were advertised to Chinese-speaking people in China, U.S., and other countries. "This case serves as an example of something else as well: the increasingly international nature of law enforcement. While the FBI investigated this case in the U.S., we received what U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York called 'extensive cooperation and assistance' from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security," the FBI said. By tracing the billing information, the FBI learned the man had made about $20,000 per month from his subscribers. "We believe he had been operating the site since at least 2007," the FBI said. After arresting the man, the FBI identified 17 additional Chinese-language child pornography websites he allegedly maintained and operated. "We also seized two servers in Dallas where those sites were hosted. All 18 websites have been shut down," it said. The investigation started in late 2010, when the FBI's legal attaché office in Beijing received information from Chinese officials about their investigation of a large-scale child pornography website housed on U.S. servers. After learning one of their main suspects was a Chinese-born man, was living in New York, the FBI New York office's Innocent Images National Initiative started an undercover operation. "While the main webpage advertised the various categories of pornographic pictures that were available, our undercover agents—with the help of an FBI Chinese language specialist—discovered that in order to actually view, post, or download the pornography, you had to pay a membership fee ($25 quarterly, $50 annually, and $100 for a 'lifetime' membership)," the FBI said. It said the website accepted credit cards, wire and bank transfers, online payments, and even cash that could be mailed to a New York money transfer office. The undercover agents who gained "membership" saw hundreds of disturbing pictures and videos of children of all different nationalities engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Further investigation traced the servers and payment system to Dallas, and the subscriber of the website domain to Flushing, New York. The FBI also traced two e-mail accounts, one featured on the site and the other affiliated with the website domain, back to the same individual. Future cooperation The FBI said the operation may open the doors to future cooperation on similar cases between FBI and Chinese investigators and prosecutors. "One concrete outcome of this partnership? The Ministry of Public Security sent its first Chinese officer to join the FBI’s Innocent Images International Task Force and receive specialized training on such topics as legal principals, emerging trends and technologies, and investigative techniques," it said. It said once the fall 2011 training session is completed, the task force will number 100 officers in 43 countries. Since its launch in 2004, the task force has built an international network of Internet child sexual exploitation investigators who share intelligence and work joint operations across national borders. "(This is) exactly what’s needed to combat the many child pornographers using the Internet to extend their nefarious reach around the globe," it said. — TJD, GMA News