Rentboy.com Employees Arrested Tuesday on Prostitution Promotion Charges
Rentboy.com CEO Jeffrey Hurant and six other website employees were arrested Tuesday and were to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, on charges of violating the Travel Act by promoting prostitution, the Department of Justice said.…
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Rentboy.com, which opened in 1997, hosts thousands of paid ads for male escort services. Justice said it also plans to seize $1.4 million from company accounts and was taking steps to shut down the website. Rentboy.com wasn’t accessible at our deadline. The website has disclaimers that say the site is for companionship advertising only not sexual services, but it’s clearly “designed primarily for advertising illegal prostitution,” Justice said. It said subscribers were able to categorize their ads based on what services they’re willing to perform and can link to another website that allows past customers to rate them. “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,” Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly Currie said in a news release.