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Backpage ‘Successor’ Laundered $21 Million Through Gift Cards and Bitcoin: Prosecutors

By Daniel Bethencourt

The founder of several websites described as a "successor" to Backpage.com, the now-defunct website that facilitated illicit sex advertising, used gift cards and banks to launder millions of dollars and refused conventional online payments, federal prosecutors said Friday. In a 22-page indictment, prosecutors in Dallas claimed that Wilhan Martono, 46, ran CityXGuide, BodyRubShop, "Backpage.co" and dozens of other related websites that hosted hundreds of thousands of sex ads in the U.S. and abroad, making them "one of the world's largest digital marketplaces for prostitution and sex trafficking." Martono registered at least seven of his web domains on April 7, 2018,...

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