United States Law Enforcement agency convicted South Korean citizen Jong Woo Son for running the largest child porn website. As per reports, Bitcoins were used to make payment for the illegal content and with the help of blockchain technology, it was tracked; it ultimately led to the criminals. According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a total of 337 site users are convicted. The search operation rescued 23 child victims from various countries including the US, Spain, and the UK.
Welcome to Video (WTV), owned by Jong Woo Son, was the controversial site on which illegal content was served. Instead of selling videos on a chat forum, WTV took payments in BTC for accessing videos. Further, the site boasts for more than a million downloads of child sex videos. Users had a unique BTC address linked with their account on the website. As per analysts, the site was linked with more than one million Bitcoin addresses, i.e. it can facilitate at least one million users.
The whole nexus of child exploitation was spread over five countries and a total of 24 accounts were funding and promoting the site. Law enforcement agency assured that they will recover these funds and will transfer it to the victims of the crime. As per reports, 3 out of 36 US citizens named in the indictment were federal law enforcement employees. A former US Navy officer has also been charged in the case.
Chainalysis, a blockchain-based software developer, claimed that its Chainalysis Reactor software used for the tracking of the transactions. The software draws an activity graph depicting in and outflow of funds from any particular website. It helped IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations.
One good thing that came out of this whole nexus is unlike its popular believe of Bitcoin being “based on thin air.” It’s a digital payment method that creates a permanent, traceable, public record of all transactions and links them to identifiable accounts. Law enforcement agencies now have a way to trace BTC transactions and they can curb down illegal financial transactions using Fintech technology.