News
Model agency shut in porn crackdown
Published: Jul 29, 2004 - 08:44 PM
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian police have shut a modelling agency which photographed underage girls and sold images over the Internet in North America as part of their biggest crackdown on child pornography, officials say.
Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Vitaly Yarema, deputy head of the Interior Ministry crime investigation department, as saying police were questioning about 15 people about the agency, which operated for three years across the country.
Police said the agency had attracted around 1,500 girls aged from eight to 16 to their offices in the capital Kiev, Kharkiv in the east and Simferopol in the south.
"The pictures (of the girls) were then sent to the United States and Canada via Internet channels," Yarema said.
Police also froze the bank accounts of the agency, which earned "hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars" in the past three years.
UNIAN news agency said police confiscated video equipment, computers, images of children, financial documents and a Porsche belonging to the group organiser, a Ukrainian in his mid-20s.
Ukrainian police worked on the case for several months with the FBI.
Police said the agency had attracted around 1,500 girls aged from eight to 16 to their offices in the capital Kiev, Kharkiv in the east and Simferopol in the south.
"The pictures (of the girls) were then sent to the United States and Canada via Internet channels," Yarema said.
Police also froze the bank accounts of the agency, which earned "hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars" in the past three years.
UNIAN news agency said police confiscated video equipment, computers, images of children, financial documents and a Porsche belonging to the group organiser, a Ukrainian in his mid-20s.
Ukrainian police worked on the case for several months with the FBI.
