Threat Management

Site operator sentenced to 13 months for facilitating prostitution

A criminal case, resulting in the first federal conviction of a website operator for facilitating prostitution, has now culminated in a 13-month prison sentence for the perpetrator.

Eric Omuro, 53, of Mountain View, Calif., pleaded guilty in December to facilitating prostitution as the operator of myRedBook[dot]com, and admitted in his plea agreement to owning and managing the website from April 2010 until June 25, 2014, a Justice Department release said last week. The site was also previously known as sfredbook[.]com.

On Thursday, Omuro, who agreed last year to forfeit more than $1.28 million in cash and property, was sentenced to 13 months in prison in San Francisco.

“Omuro admitted that the website hosted advertisements posted by prostitutes containing explicit photos, graphic descriptions of sexual services offered and rates for the sexual services. The advertisements were searchable by geographic location, including cities throughout California, other U.S. states and Canada,” the Justice Department said.

“According to an affidavit submitted in connection with the sentencing hearing, the FBI identified more than 50 juveniles who were also advertised on myRedBook for the purpose of prostitution,” the agency said later.

When Omuro was arrested last June, he agreed to surrender the domain names myRedBook[.]com and sfredbook[.]com.

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