Investigators found most of the children pictured on the site were recruited from Eastern Europe. Newstar Enterprise employees fraudulently opened merchant and bank accounts in the United States, using a bogus jewelry company to launder the proceeds. More than $9.4m in income was generated by the websites. Some images were provided free, while other content was unlocked by paying a subscription fee. The websites attracted users from 101 different countries. "Using the recruited child-victims, the Newstar Enterprise produced more than 4.6 million sexualized images and videos to distribute and sell on the Newstar Websites." "To populate the Newstar Websites with content, Newstar Enterprise members sourced, enticed, solicited and recruited males and females under the age of 18, some of whom were prepubescent, to use as 'child models' for the Newstar Websites," said the Department of Justice in a statement. Though the images and videos did not depict any minor as completely nude, some of the children were shown engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Some of the images and videos sold via the Newstar Websites showed children as young as 6 years old in sexual and provocative poses, wearing police and cheerleader costumes, revealing swimsuits, pantyhose and miniskirts, thong underwear, and transparent underwear. International Florida-based business Newstar Enterprise, which was founded in 2005, built, maintained, hosted, and operated what appeared to be a series of legitimate child modeling websites called Newstar Websites on servers based in the US and abroad.Īccording to court documents, Newstar was in reality "an internet-based business aimed at for-profit sexual exploitation of vulnerable children under the guise of 'child modeling'." Four Floridians have been charged in connection with a child sexual abuse material (CSAM) subscription service that produced millions of images and videos of sexualized minors.
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