Welcome to Video Admin Fights Extradition with a Lawsuit
~2 min read | Published on 2020-05-16, tagged General-News using 322 words.
The administrator of a darkweb child pornography forum has been sued by his father in an attempt to block extradition to the United States for an assortment of child pornography and money laundering crimes.
The father of 24-year-old Jong-Woo Son, the administrator of the now-defunct child pornography forum “Welcome To Video,” has filed a complaint against his son for “violation of the law on criminal proceeds concealment.”
In the complaint, Son is accused of using his father’s personal information without consent to open an account on an undisclosed cryptocurrency trading forum. Son then allegedly used the account to receive and conceal proceeds of crime. The father also claims his son defamed his grandmother by clearing her hospital bill with crime proceeds.
[img=]The Welcome to Video seizure banner[/img]
Son ran Welcome To Video from mid-2015 to March 2018. Welcome To Video hosted more than 250,000 unique child exploitation videos, making it the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content, according to the US Department of Justice. The site reportedly received more than 420 bitcoins from its users. Son was arrested on March 5, 2018, in his residence in South Korea.
On April 27, 2020, Son completed his 18-month prison sentence in South Korea for producing and distributing child pornography. He was not released after completing his sentence and is now waiting on the Seoul High Court to rule on his extradition to the United States. A grand jury in the United States returned a nine-count indictment accusing Son of Conspiracy to Advertise Child Pornography; Advertising Child Pornography; Production of Child Pornography for Importation to the United States; Conspiracy to Distribute Child Pornography; Distribution of Child Pornography; and Money Laundering. Seoul High Court will rule only on the Money Laundering charge; double jeopardy laws prevent the court from making a decision based on the child pornography charges.
Seoul High Court will rule on the money laundering charges by the end of June 2020.
Welcome to Video Indictment (PDF) (HTML)
The father of 24-year-old Jong-Woo Son, the administrator of the now-defunct child pornography forum “Welcome To Video,” has filed a complaint against his son for “violation of the law on criminal proceeds concealment.”
In the complaint, Son is accused of using his father’s personal information without consent to open an account on an undisclosed cryptocurrency trading forum. Son then allegedly used the account to receive and conceal proceeds of crime. The father also claims his son defamed his grandmother by clearing her hospital bill with crime proceeds.
[img=]The Welcome to Video seizure banner[/img]
Son ran Welcome To Video from mid-2015 to March 2018. Welcome To Video hosted more than 250,000 unique child exploitation videos, making it the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content, according to the US Department of Justice. The site reportedly received more than 420 bitcoins from its users. Son was arrested on March 5, 2018, in his residence in South Korea.
On April 27, 2020, Son completed his 18-month prison sentence in South Korea for producing and distributing child pornography. He was not released after completing his sentence and is now waiting on the Seoul High Court to rule on his extradition to the United States. A grand jury in the United States returned a nine-count indictment accusing Son of Conspiracy to Advertise Child Pornography; Advertising Child Pornography; Production of Child Pornography for Importation to the United States; Conspiracy to Distribute Child Pornography; Distribution of Child Pornography; and Money Laundering. Seoul High Court will rule only on the Money Laundering charge; double jeopardy laws prevent the court from making a decision based on the child pornography charges.
Seoul High Court will rule on the money laundering charges by the end of June 2020.
Welcome to Video Indictment (PDF) (HTML)
