4-yr prison term sought for child porn site operator for concealing criminal proceeds
Son Jong-woo leaves the Seoul Detention Center in this July 6, 2020, file photo, after serving an 18-month prison term and following a Seoul court rejecting a U.S. extradition request for him. Yonhap
Prosecutors sought a four-year prison sentence Thursday for the operator of one of the world's largest child sexual abuse websites on charges of concealing proceeds from the crime.
Son Jong-woo, 26, has been indicted on charges of hiding about 400 million won (US$318,700), which he raised from running the Welcome to Video site on the dark net from June 2015 to March 2018.
Son was found to have laundered and cashed the digital money using cryptocurrency accounts and his father's bank account, and used about 5.6 million won for online gambling. He admitted all of the charges.
"Please consider that the proceeds were earned through a crime that sparked outrage across the world," the prosecution said during the hearing.
The prosecution also demanded a fine of 5 million won.
Son has already served a one-and-a-half-year prison term for operating the website and was released in July 2020.
But he was indicted again after his father filed a criminal complaint against him in May 2020 on money laundering charges, a move apparently intended to prevent Son from being extradited to the United States, where he would face a far more severe punishment.
The U.S. authorities had filed an extradition request for Son after a federal grand jury in D.C. indicted him in August 2018 on nine counts related to his operation of Welcome to Video.
But the Seoul High Court ruled against the request, citing a need for the Korean authorities to have Son in the country to fully crack down on child sexual exploitation here.
Welcome to Video was one of the biggest known child pornography websites until it was taken down by law enforcement in March of 2018. At least 23 underage victims abused by the site's users were reportedly rescued by the law enforcement authorities of the U.S., Germany, Britain and others. (Yonhap)