Rentboy.com Offices Raided in NYC Today
 

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Authorities carried out a major prostitution sting targeting a website in Manhattan Tuesday morning, raiding the company headquarters and arresting seven people accused of selling sex and laundering money.

The CEO of Rentboy.com, Jeffrey Hurant, and six other employees were taken into custody at their homes across New York City, and bank accounts and millions of dollars were seized.

For more info go to:

Rentboy.com offices raided, 7 arrested in prostitution, money laundering bust | abc7ny.com

How very interesting....

What a waste of time and money, DHS.

Uncle Sam wants his CUT!

I have a feeling more sites are going to be targeted real soon.

So that was a gay site?
Rent a boy can fill the vacuum. LOL

a new site will pop up :2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

YUP:2 cents::thumbsup

Not good news, hopefully they pull out OK

How is it illegal for a website to sell ads to people advertising escorting/dates for money when every newspaper and the Yellow Pages do the exact same thing?

BigDoggie.net was a huge straight site for escorts - ads, directory, etc - and they were busted. Anybody know how that ended up for the owners of the site?

Were they running an illegal prostitution ring?

Without knowing all the details it sound slike they thought they had successfully loop holed prostitution... but didn't.

You hope they pull out ok from doing something illegal? or am I missing something?

I don't like to see anyone going to jail - especially for a victimless crime. That is if what they are doing is proven to be illegal. From the news reports it doesnt look good for them, I agree.

That's what she said.

Bada-BING!

:pimp

damn! now where will i get my man whores!!!!

You would think that after Hotmovies got raided by the FBI for Escorts.com and RedBook got shut down people with prostitution sites in the US would clean up their site or relocate outside the US.

That was my first thought and it's not like RentBoy.com didn't have the money to move.

hey some guy was just asking about this great business opportunity too :1orglaugh

In this case - that what HE said....

Bada bing!:1orglaugh

It seems the investigators weren't mucking around either.

All of his domains are offline including WHATSWHAT.COM and others unconnected. It looks like absolutely everything Jeff has is shut down. That means all his Amazon services are gone too.

The FBI & NYPD must have had a very busy morning.

Rentboy is still up.

It's not.

It's not just you! http://rentboy.com looks down from here.

They used AWS, you may be seeing cached pages but the service behind those is gone.

Edit: I can pull the site up sometimes, I wonder what's behind that ? Preparing for a seizure notice ?

Edit Edit: When I do get the site up it's terribly broken, images not loading for profiles etc. No idea what's going on there.

Im sure by tomorrow their site will look like this

NOTICE

This domain name has been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as the result of a joint investigation by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.

This domain name is subject to both civil and criminal forfeiture. This seizure is based on probable cause to believe that this domain name was involved in money laundering derived from racketeering based on prostitution in violation of state and federal law.

Property, including domain names, involved in violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 1957, is subject to civil and criminal forfeiture to the United States pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 981(a)(1)(A) and Section 982(a)(1).

To report information about a crime to the FBI, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Homeland Security? Looks like someone in high places is a little worried about their history on Rentboy getting out like Ashley Madison...

Pull out? Pull out of what? Their site has been siezed, along with all their assets. They will be
Begging for a court appointed attorney. They are finished and will be made an example of.
2 years from now they will begin their 15 year sentence

It's too early to tell what the outcome will be.

Please...you and everyone else knows that these "escort" sites are really just a front for prostitution. Either your being optimistic or are a fucking moron.

It sucks. Jeff has been a good friend and client for 18 years. I hope he and his staff are released soon. And that they can mount a solid defense. Jeff is a fighter ;-)

Although I do think your idea is a bit of a "stretch" it would be funny as fuck if true.

Whatever these sites are is irrelevant.

What I was referring to was the ability of Jeff to take on whatever is thrown at him, it's way too early to know what will happen because if anyone can fight this head on it's Jeff.

So I stand by my original statement. It's too early to tell what the outcome will be.

Homeland Security is just out of left field. Wasn't it the FBI that did Redbook? Or perhaps the IRS would make more sense if this was a tax issue. But Homeland Security?

Jeff has no one to blame but himself, good guy or not. Opening a escort site within usa is just stupid. The gov will take all his money, homes, toys and his freedom. I personaly think such sites should be legel. But unfortunately they are not.

What the site is 100% relevant. Its what got him into this shit in the first place. And he can fight all he wants but will get nowhere. He dont have enough $ to fight chaeges he will eventualy will be found guilty of.

And another thing..his willing or ability to fight means nothing. Your forgetting the most important thing thats needed in a court battle. Its called MONEY. Right now he is as poor as a mexican farmer.

I'm so glad I live in The Netherlands... My Book A Hooker websites are killing it at the moment. :thumbsup

A moron your not.

Im not sure. But taxes are always an issue. Especially when a site like this caters to tons of undeclared dollars.

Maximum penalty on the charges is 5 years , 250k fine or both.

The unsealed affidavit can be read here.

https://tribwpix.files.wordpress.com...t-redacted.pdf

If it was taxes, we'd see the FBI or even the IRS itself involved. Homeland Security suggests there was some kind of perceived threat to the government... we shall see.

Read the Affidavit.

My understanding is that reason Homeland Security was involved was they are responsible for the Travel Act. Happy for someone with legal qualifications to correct me.

5 years is not too bad I suppose, but what will really hurt is all their assets will likely go up in smoke
News says his twitter account was "cyberpimp". Talk about flaunting the obvious

Because they were blantenly facilitating prostitution. Its very hard to deny the fact with a domain name like rentboy. At least sites like craigslist offer many other services that are legeal. Its much easier for them to deny involvement.

"Rent" & "Boy"

Yeah...im sure "boy" wont be helping them get through all this either

Nail on head. Probably someone very high up the government's food chain, and Rentboy has already had some run-ins with high level Republicans.
Republican NJ Mayor Resigns After 'Rentboy' Scandal
George Rekers, Anti-Gay Activist, Caught With Male Escort 'Rentboy' [UPDATE: Escort Says Rekers Is Gay]
Republican Lawmaker Who Pretended To Be Sleeping With A Rentboy Has Biblical Meltdown / Queerty

What I find even more strange is that they arrested not only the owner and his employees, but also a couple of ex-employees. Why stick it on these people that are just trying to make a living as well?? It's all just a disgusting use of Government resources.

worse than that:
if you looked at rentboy the ads were all pictures of guys dicks and asses in underwear with a hourly rates. A lot of ads didnt even show face.

I think its a silly victim-less "crime" but still thats pretty brazen

the owner looks like a total douche bag.

very much agree

:thumbsup:thumbsup

Site now redirects to seizedserver.com