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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
April 30 , 2009
PRAIRIE VILLAGE MAN WHO SUBSCRIBED TO ‘BEST CHILD PORN SITE” SENTENCED TO 6+ YEARS
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Prairie Village, Kan., man who spent $79.99 to subscribe to a Web site advertised as the best child porn site on the Internet has been sentenced to 77 months in federal prison, Acting U.S. Attorney Marietta Parker said today.
In January 2009, Michael Vujnovich, 36, Prairie Village, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.
In his plea, he admitted he was charged as a result of an investigation by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that focused on an Internet site offering access to images of child pornography for a fee. In October 2005, ICE agents monitored a Web site that displayed images of children and minors engaged in sex. It promised subscribers “tons of uncensored forbidden pics.” Subscribers who paid $79.99 for access received an email with login and password . Upon entering the site, subscribers were told: “Our site is considered to be illegal in all countries ... if you ever have problems with police, you can always say that someone had stolen the information from your credit card and used it. It is very difficult to establish you were the person to pay.”
Investigators tracked the site through servers in Orlando, Fla., and McLean, VA and were able to obtain a list of subscribers, including Vujnovich in Prairie Village. After he paid for access, he received an email saying that if anyone called to ask about the transaction, “just answer you purchased anti-spyware software.”
When investigators served a search warrant at Vujnovich’s home they found 13 floppy disks and two computers containing child pornography, including 27 movies containing child pornography involving girls from 5 to 12 years old. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified 66 of the images from its data base of known victims.
Parker commended Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Martin for their work on the case.
The case is being prosecuted under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood, which aims to protect children from sexual predators. For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov
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