Abby Winters offices raided - Garion arrested

[nation-x]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...0-2862,00.html

Keith Moor

June 16, 2009 12:00am

POLICE raided a Melbourne porn business that makes up to $10 million a year from allegedly illegal activities.

Detectives raided five premises as part of Operation Refuge, seizing computers containing footage of women allegedly performing explicit sex acts, which are illegal to produce in Victoria.

They are also investigating allegations that some of the models on the porn company's website are under age.

Police raided the Fitzroy head office of G Media - which runs a porn website - in the early morning raids, and arrested its director, Garion Hall, at his Heidelberg home.

Two storage facilities and another office were part of the Fitzroy raids.

Computer records and explicit DVDs allegedly containing material too graphic to be legally made in Victoria were among items seized.

It is illegal to profit from making porn films in Victoria.

It is believed Mr Hall denies any wrongdoing.

Yesterday's raids came after the Herald Sun provided police with a dossier of information about the allegedly illegal porn G Media, and companies associated with it, have churned out in Melbourne since about 2000.

G Media is believed to receive about $30 a month from 30,000 subscribers to its website, which contains more than 370,000 explicit images and almost 4000 sex videos.

The company specialises in filming female teenage students and backpackers in Melbourne and has explicit photographs and videos of almost 1200 young women on its website, many listed as being aged 18 and 19.

Police have seen a copy of a driver's licence of one G Media nude model, allegedly showing she was 17 when photographed. It is not known if Mr Hall knew of her age.

Detectives from Yarra CIU questioned Mr Hall yesterday while the police e-crime squad began sifting through mountains of electronic material seized during the raids.

Mr Hall, 34, was released last night, but possibly faces charges of making objectionable films for gain, which carries a maximum jail term of two years.

Each of G Media's 30 employees could also be charged with the same offence.

Yarra CIU Sen-Det Steven Boskovski said police were likely to make more arrests.

"We're still identifying the hierarchy involved," he said. "We're very satisfied with the content we've secured."

The Herald Sun provided police with written information that allegedly reveals Mr Hall was warned by experts in 2007 that G Media's activities were likely to be in breach of state and federal laws.

One former G Media employee, Steen Vestergaard, has claimed in court documents that before he accepted a job he was assured the sex films he would be producing were legal.

Mr Vestergaard later sought his own legal advice and was told the films were too explicit to be legally made in Victoria and that he was liable to be prosecuted if he continued to produce them.

Former G Media model Liandra Dahl said the company used cash-in-hand payments to lure teenagers into performing prohibited sex acts on camera.

"It is utterly unethical to mislead very young people into choices that could affect their entire life," she said.

G Media uses posters stuck on traffic lights and poles near popular pubs and nightclubs to entice budding nude models to contact them.

A G Media poster in Chapel St, Prahran, offers females up to $800 cash on the day of the shoot and provides contact details for more information.

[Roald]

That will teach them for denying us as an affiliate!

Interesting though

[signbucks]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

what a shit happened

[nation-x]

Originally Posted by Roald

That will teach them for denying us as an affiliate!

Interesting though

They denied freeones as an affiliate? wtf? Me too, btw.

[Slutboat]

bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses

[mikeyddddd]

Originally Posted by nation-x

Yarra CIU Sen-Det Steven Boskovski said police were likely to make more arrests.

"We're still identifying the hierarchy involved," he said. "We're very satisfied with the content we've secured."

Yeah, I'll bet

[Roald]

Originally Posted by nation-x

They denied freeones as an affiliate? wtf? Me too, btw.

few years ago, not too bothered about it though. There are other fish to swim with ;))

[moeloubani]

they accepted me as an affiliate, i signed all the paper work faxed it back (had to use post office fax machine cost me like $30 ) and then they never answered me back

the lady asked me if i had signed and sent everything in, i said yes and that was it no more communication

wtf abby winters

still though their lesbian porn is the best out there. i wish that i could find another site with lesbian porn that real looking that would take me as an affiliate they had lots of tribbing

[nation-x]

It really sucks because I have close friends that are top affiliates for AW and make the majority of their income from them... this is a real blow to them.

[Slutboat]

You have to be persistent and wait a year or two to get approved but it's worth it, they convert very well.... seems to be a lot of customers out there for ordinary unshaved farm girls with no make up... good luck to them to recover from this, sounds like they caught a bad case here to bad they didn't see it coming there's no shortage of mutts here in the states to shoot

[fris]

thats a lot of members, 900k a month

[Zorgman]

It says the girl was 17 when she was shot. That's just wrong. They should know better then that.

Also go to ACT and shoot, porn capital of australia.

[Qbert]

It's not like this is a new law in Australia. I'm surprised they've not run into legal problems prior to now.

[Manowar]

wow, damn....

[pornguy]

Not good at all.

[Si]

that's one way to completely fuck up an affiliate program.

[quantum-x]

"We're still identifying the hierarchy involved," he said. "We're very satisfied with the content we've secured."

I bet, Mr Policeman!

[Steve Awesome]

Originally Posted by Zorgman

It says the girl was 17 when she was shot. That's just wrong. They should know better then that.

Also go to ACT and shoot, porn capital of australia.

Sometimes I wonder if age should be calculated from time of conception. I wonder what that would do to all of our ages. Technically speaking we all existed at least 9 months prior to our "birth" date.

[Roald]

Originally Posted by quantum-x

I bet, Mr Policeman!

LOL

[SpicyM]

Abby Winters would be one of those few sites I would join myself

What a shame, I hope they will recover from this, the content is simply matchless

[TheSenator]

Originally Posted by Roald

That will teach them for denying us as an affiliate!

Interesting though

Seriously??? or joke?

[crockett]

You know, every since Australia started going Nazi with all the porn and guns laws, I was wondering WTF companies like their's kept working there. IMO it's no big surprise that they would be a target with the way Australia has been going.

[JP-pornshooter]

how do they know where the content was produced?
AU is not exactly porn friendly altogether..

[cybermike]

So how long before the site comes down you think?

[Agent 488]

yeah was denied by them - but i know people who make nice bank off them - sucks big time.

[Agent 488]

i fucked all the abby winters girls -

[MaDalton]

i think Abby Winters was the first site i ever signed up to - and one of the reasons for me to start in this biz. my plan to build the same with german girls failed miserably though - lol

[FreeHugeMovies]

Thats a lot of coin!

[Agent 488]

what a shit happened!!!!!!!!!

[Drake]

It's a shame. I wonder if the site will stay up. Too many government porn nazis with nothing better to do.

[V_RocKs]

I love the way the paper paints a picture that looks more like Max Hardcore then what it really is. The only thing disgusting about the sex acts performed was the fucking hair...

Other than that, same shit girls do on a daily basis... Masturbate and occasionally lick a friend.

[shimmy2]

thats messed up

[GUNNER]

Originally Posted by nation-x

It really sucks because I have close friends that are top affiliates for AW and make the majority of their income from them... this is a real blow to them.

Hmmmmm, I just don't know who they could promote... Hmmm, I wonder... gee, I just have no idea.

[fuzebox]

Is it illegal to produce porn in all of Australia or just a specific states or areas? I've never heard anything about it being illegal before this article.

[Agent 488]

Originally Posted by GUNNER

Hmmmmm, I just don't know who they could promote... Hmmm, I wonder... gee, I just have no idea.

what do you mean by that. i am stupid.

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by fuzebox

Is it illegal to produce porn in all of Australia or just a specific states or areas? I've never heard anything about it being illegal before this article.

the news blurb didn't say it was illegal to make porn, only illegal to make porn for profit

[GUNNER]

Originally Posted by budsbabes

what do you mean by that. i am stupid.

They are (were) arguably our biggest competitor in the hairy niche. I was being tongue-in-cheek with my comment.

I certainly don't wish any legal problems on anyone and think they've been targeted unnecissarily. I certainly hope they're able to straighten this out with very little long-term damage.

[Agent 488]

Originally Posted by GUNNER

They are (were) arguably our biggest competitor in the hairy niche. I was being tongue-in-cheek with my comment.

I certainly don't wish any legal problems on anyone and think they've been targeted unnecissarily. I certainly hope they're able to straighten this out with very little long-term damage.

cool man. my joke detector was must have been off.

[Mutt]

if he shot underage girls knowingly, fuck him, off to jail, he can join Galitsin from Galitsin Archives.

the dude deserves this, his attitude towards affiliates, shooting porn in a province/state where he knew it was illegal - arrogance

remember this is a guy who tells his members to cancel and join again so the affiliates who do send him traffic lose their measly 25% or whatever the revshare is on rebills

[crockett]

Originally Posted by Mutt

if he shot underage girls knowingly, fuck him, off to jail, he can join Galitsin from Galitsin Archives.

the dude deserves this, his attitude towards affiliates, shooting porn in a province/state where he knew it was illegal - arrogance

remember this is a guy who tells his members to cancel and join again so the affiliates who do send him traffic lose their measly 25% or whatever the revshare is on rebills

That's pretty fucked up if he did tell his customers to do that. I looked into promoting them but the pay was really crappy. Think it was like $9 a sale or some shit.. (been several years though)

As for the underage, yes this will be the issue to watch if it turns out to be true, but I do agree it was pretty dumb of him to continue shooting porn there when it was illegal. Especially when his site is pretty well known.

As for Galitsin, didn't he get killed while in Russian prison?

[Brujah]

$10 million a year, he was doing something right?

[gornyhuy]

This is all because the cops didn't want to pay for it.

[Karupted Charles]

Originally Posted by crockett

That's pretty fucked up if he did tell his customers to do that. I looked into promoting them but the pay was really crappy. Think it was like $9 a sale or some shit.. (been several years though)

Yes it is true it has been brought up before and it blows my mind anyone promoted them after that. Further more he explained how to remove affiliate cookies in the members area forum bitching about how affiliates limit his (posted as a girl though) ability to make money.

[Jim_Gunn]

I remember when Abby Winters first started out, and they turned that site and their DVD series into quite a success. What's crazy about this story is that their content is comparatively so softcore- mostly amateur Australian girls in solo masturbation photos & videos and girl-girl scenes too. Pretty defensible stuff against all but the most stringent obscenity laws in any Western nation. I imagine that even in Australia, with a good attorney they at least would have a chance to create a legal precedent if they fought it all the way. Of course drawing local attention in the communities with those flyers and even worse, the possibility they filmed an underaged model if the charges are for real complicate things quite a bit.

[TheDA]

Originally Posted by crockett

That's pretty fucked up if he did tell his customers to do that. I looked into promoting them but the pay was really crappy. Think it was like $9 a sale or some shit.. (been several years though)

As for the underage, yes this will be the issue to watch if it turns out to be true, but I do agree it was pretty dumb of him to continue shooting porn there when it was illegal. Especially when his site is pretty well known.

As for Galitsin, didn't he get killed while in Russian prison?

Galitsin got out of prison 2-3 month ago.

[brassmonkey]

Originally Posted by mikeyddddd

Yeah, I'll bet

[crockett]

Originally Posted by TheDA

Galitsin got out of prison 2-3 month ago.

Ahh.. well who was the fuck that came on here and posted he got killed in prison over there? I know someone posted that shit like 6 months or so after that fuck was busted.

[RayBonga]

that's pretty fucked up

[TheDA]

Originally Posted by crockett

Ahh.. well who was the fuck that came on here and posted he got killed in prison over there? I know someone posted that shit like 6 months or so after that fuck was busted.

It might have been longer than 2-3 months ago actually.

I don't think I saw the original thread about him being killed. I came across a load of new stuff about him recently and it talked about suicide rumors in prison.

There's a load of pictures of him and his wife after their release on Flickr or somewhere like that and loads of blog stuff too.

[wargames]

Originally Posted by Roald

That will teach them for denying us as an affiliate!

Interesting though

They denied us as well