Rentboy.Com Taken Down by US Homeland Security
-
Rentboy.com Offices in NY Raided by Feds, CEO Arrested For Prostitution: VIDEO
http://www.towleroad.com/2015/08/rentboy-com-offices-in-ny-raided-by-feds-ceo-arrested-for-prostitution-and-money-laundering-video/The offices on 14th Street at Fifth Avenue in Manhattan were raided. There were arrests. Files were seized.
CEO Jeffrey Hurrant told reporters,
“Twenty years we’ve been doing it [running Rentboy.com]. And I don’t think we do anything to promote prostitution. I think we do good things for good people and we bring good people together. And I hope that justice will be done in the end.”
Meanwhile, acting U.S. Attorney Kelly T. Currie has said of the charges, “As alleged, Rentboy.com attempted to present a veneer of legality, when in fact this Internet brothel made millions of dollars from the promotion of illegal prostitution.”While the usual 'phobes are happy, a surprising number of others seem to think sex for sale by uncoerced adults to uncoerced adults is some kind of a crime with some kind of victim and is a comparable threat to "national security" as anti-government bombings. Nationally known gay advice columnist and pundit Dan Savage also reports on the raid and arrests:
Department of Homeland Security Helps NYP Raid and Shut Down Rentboy.com
by Dan Savage • Aug 25, 2015 at 10:48 am
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/08/25/22755290/department-of-homeland-security-helps-nyp-raid-and-shut-down-rentboycom"And since when," he asks, "did it become the Department of Homeland Security's job to protect gay and bi men from buying and selling blowjobs?"
One of his readers provided some additional information:
"Unlike other sites, clients don't have to register to use the site. You just browse ads and then call or text the advertisers. (Some other sites will only allow you to see contact info if you've registered — RB was not like that.)"
Also, says the anon reader:
"The site does not handle payments between clients and escorts."
Supposedly, prostitution, which is illegal in the state of New York, is eveil because people are forced into doing things they do not want to do and are under the control of, no pun intended, Fagins out of Dickens, pimps being abusive and taking most of the money from their helpless slaves. In fact, escorts on Rentboy.Com are free agents who pay their own monthly fee to advertise on the site, cutting out the middleman, and reaching any agreement directly with clients who reach out to them by telephone or e-mail in order to make arrangements. There is no profiteering pimp.
While some of the adverts are quite specific about the escort's interests and specialties, many also include some boilerplate language (roughly akin to software EULAs that "everyone" clicks through without reading, saying that any exchange of money is for time only, not for sexual activities. It is unlikely that anyone is much fooled by that disclaimer, which might be as meaningless as those silly "notice" things in online male dating/hookup sites about invasion of privacy if anyone uses a listing for some kind of "research."
In any event, what is involved is private agreements among consenting adults, and the US is supposedly utterly and even terminally devoted to free enterprise, to the point where some political candidates for president proclaim bigotry, racial and sexual discrimination, are literally Divinely authorized rights and in the great granfalloon of liberty and freedom, everyone should be free to gun down anyone else at any time because reasons. (Granfalloon is a Kurt Vonnegut word, by the way. Wikipedia will explain it to you.)
Oh, that did not come out right. What I mean is that the same god that inspired the sacred US Constitution and authorized slavery also intended men and women who are True Believers to inflict their idea of their god's self-righteous wrath on everyone they believe that old troll created by accident. Or something. Like marriage being only sanctified if between one adult man and one adult woman, that is just another myth of course. Count all the multiple wives and concubines of patriarchs in the Buy Bull….
Anyway, freedom for me, not for thee, that's the ticket. Wasn't it George Orwell who said that some are created more equal than others? And if you believe in the One True God of Israel, whether or not that figure had a corporeal son who ate and pooped and had hormones like the rest of us, or even if you believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster instead, you are exempt from obeying the law or, if you are public official paid with taxpayer revenue, free to ignore any human law you believe, at your sole discretion, to conflict with your mythological imperatives.
And yet.... here is capitalism and private enterprise conflicting with massively expensive and inappropriate government interference in private affairs, but....
Some more facts before I rant again. You can read the horrifying complaint for yourself:
http://www.towleroad.com/2015/08/read-the-criminal-complaint-against-rentboy-com/
Or check out another report of the actual raid and arrests at Towelroad, a site for gay news and topics:
NBC4NY reported:
Department of Homeland Security agents and members of the NYPD, which assisted in the raid, were seen removing boxes from the offices Tuesday.
Millions of dollars in numerous bank accounts have been seized in connection with the probe. […]
The Department of Homeland Security was involved in the raid in part because the investigation involves transferring money across state lines.ABC7 explained:
Men would pay a fee and post their information on site, and those interested would go directly to the site and contact the poster. The site charges subscribers a minimum monthly fee of $59.95 and up to several hundred dollars to advertise. The complaint said that between 2010 and 2015, Rentboy.com grossed more than $10 million.That income would have been partly, perhaps even primarily, from a related site offering porn for pay and involving credit cards. Anyone who hired an escort, for whatever purpose, would not have paid the site owner-operators a cent to read or respond to an advert. The site was searchable by location and other criteria, and included escorts operating around the world. None of which sounds like "money laundering" to me, but what do I know?
While there are competitor sites, and male dating/hookup sites that include escorts as well as seekers of "sugar daddies," there has not yet been any announcement of a raid on more costly escort sites or such general-purpose contact sites as Craigslist, which is a nationwide service of "small ads" (classified adverts) for the exchange of goods and services from used cars and furniture to mundane employment (handyman, plumber….) and, yes, "dating."
Interesting that Ashley Madison, devoted to the promotion of extra-marital affairs, only got into trouble when hackers released a ton of details helpful in identity theft, a site with, as it turns out, very few actual female women among those supposedly available there. But it takes the government, in the name of national security, to crack down on male sex for hire.
Not everyone thinks that sex workers are to be shunned.
LGBT Rights Organizations Join Amnesty International in Call to Decriminalize Sex Work
http://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20150820_decriminalize-sex-workMaybe time to join or renew your membership?
What happens now is anyone's guess, but a lot of people are going to have trouble paying their rent this month as a result of the raid and arrests and headline hysteria. Personally, I think that men who have sex for a living are likely to be good at it, so that it is a Good Thing there are parties and conventions and annual prizes for escorts and for porn stars. There was a brief attempt in the porn capitol of Southern California to claim that paid performers in sex videos were actually being paid for prostitution, but that didn't go very far.
For one thing, the industry is now seriously institutionalized. There are megabuck millions on the line, so there are lawyers, accountants, distribution channels, and lots more beyond online websites. This is Big Business, pays taxes, and keeps hotel chains profitable via adult pay-per-view television options at all the national chains. There are industry associations with lobbyists and publicity agents who know what they are doing. Male escorts, following in the wake of hetero hooker activists, may be trending in the same direction. And while it may be argued that those who perform professionally on film are good at Looking like they are having great sex rather than actually having great sex (which lots of amateur videos prove can be poorly presented and unfun to watch, whatever the hijinx and revelry involved), but actually providing a great experience is what a successful escort is supposed to do.
The first great male porn star was, undoubtedly, Casey Donovan, a high class courtesan for much of his too-short life. Others in the industry have followed. Rafael Alencar, Tommy Defendi, Colby Jansen, and other top stars have hired out their personal services on Rentboy.Com, so sometimes if you watch someone you like, you can meet with them in person. I think that's a Good Thing that top-of-the-line performers and escorts are likely to continue doing, so long as they want to, whatever happens to this one website. Remember the old adage that the Internet considers censorship to be a technical gitch and routes around it.
If that takes a while for ordinary dudes who are trying to get by, it WILL inevitably happen. And perhaps it will be sooner rather than later that filmmaking and escorting will be sufficiently and openly integrated so that you can watch before you hire. Without a webcam of my own, I don't really claim to know what happens in online shows sponsored by major adult industry studios for their existing stars, but turning tricks has always been a way for a man to make some quick cash; these days it is just more conveniently automated.
-
Whew, that was close – I'm still shaking! I for one will sleep more soundly tonight knowing that our ever-vigilant Department of Homeland Security is busy protecting us from rampaging rentboys and all the chaos they might have (and could still!) cause.