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2 review sites seized in major bust
Bellevue, Washington - Puget Sound
The joint operation between Bellevue Police and the King County Sheriff’s Office led to the seizure of two websites www.TheReviewboard.net and a sister site called www.kgirldelights.com with the “K” standing for Korea, officials announced at a news conference. The site www.TheReviewboard.net which now bears the insignia of the FBI, King County Prosecutor's Office, the Bellevue Police Department, and the King County Sheriff's Office, once fielded online reviews of sex workers from their clients, or "hobbyists." Sex workers keeping tabs on the site could also vet their clientele by looking at hobbyists' user histories and asking other sex workers about them. www.TheReviewboard.net with an estimated 23,000 members, allowed men to post graphic descriptions of their sexual encounters with women prostitutes and share tips to avoid police attention and suspicion from wives and girlfriends, according to charging papers. “This website facilitated prostitution,” Sheriff John Urquhart said at a news conference. One of the brothel owners is an alleged member of “The League,” an exclusive group of local sex buyers who were also charged with promoting prostitution after being infiltrated by undercover detectives, Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett said. Sigurd Zitars, 61, is the owner and operator of www.TheReviewboard.net according to charging papers. Zitars and a group of 50 of his most prolific posters established themselves as an exclusive, invitation-only group that called itself “The League,” police and prosecutors say. Zitars was arrested along with alleged League members. Members of The League set up the www.kgirldelights.com site for South Korean women after Zitars — who goes by the handle “Tahoe Ted” — wanted to start advertising Asian sex workers on his site, charging papers say. Both websites worked with agencies and “bookers” who book appointments for the Asian women, according to the charges. Members of “The League,” who used anonymous handles instead of their real names, would regularly meet at local pubs or restaurants. Many times “the discussions were so graphic that patrons sitting at tables next to us would get up and leave or move to another table,” an undercover detective, who infiltrated the group, wrote in charging documents. The detective attended five “meet and greets” with The League ring members between June and October 2015. The detective reported receiving emails from members that discussed the prostitutes. Charging documents contain excerpts from graphic emails allegedly sent by members that rate their experiences with particular prostitutes. In many instances, police identified League members by following them to their vehicles and running their license plate numbers. Several of the meetings were also secretly recorded by police, the charges say. Urquhart said detectives also have the names and photos of thousands of men who signed up for accounts on www.TheReviewboard.net Urquhart said the investigation into www.TheReviewboard.net and “The League” is “unprecedented in size and scope” in the region. The sheriff’s office, which has been investigating www.TheReviewboard.net for years, launched an investigation last spring. video -----> http://www.king5.com/story/news/crim...bust/78423470/ http://crosscut.com/2014/10/sex-seat...-prostitution/ http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...s-to-be-filed/ https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/artic...thereviewboard video -----> http://www.king5.com/story/news/loca...king/78399190/ http://www.theolympian.com/news/loca...e54216240.html Last edited by Libertine; October 19th, 2016 at 11:27 PM. 
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#3
March 18th, 2016
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Law and Order Republican
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Sigurd Zitars also known as Tahoe Ted describes himself as a college-educated professional in his 50s, a “law-and-order Republican.” He says he has been a connoisseur of paid sexual services for the past 30 years. Tahoe Ted operated his Web site, www.TheReviewboard.net commonly known as TRB, since 2001. There, as on many online sex boards, men post reviews of their experiences with “sex providers,” which is what modern, politically correct johns call the women whose services they engage. TRB users scorn the street scene; the idea of selecting a sex partner off the street strikes them as dangerous and distasteful. They leave all that for desperate women and “mongers,” the term for customers who seek sex on the street. TRB customers who shop on the Internet want “escorts,” not “bitches” or “hos.” They don’t consider themselves mongers, they’re “hobbyists.” Tahoe Ted and his fellow hobbyists seek what they call the GFE, the “girlfriend experience,” which comes with a high level of service. The provider is expected to be attentive, caring, and warm. She spends time, she listens, she even kisses. She is reliable about showing up and she enjoys the sexual attention she receives, or she’s good at pretending at what she's doing.  A review might read: She was a spinner (petite woman) with a natural rack (no breast implants) and hardwood floors (completely shaved genitals), allowed DATY (dining at the Y, cunnilingus) but French lessons (fellatio) were translated (using a condom); after ½ and ½ (oral sex followed by intercourse) I spilled a second cup of coffee (ejaculated a second time). "If you’re 58 and not especially rich, you’ll never get a date with a gorgeous 22-year-old,” says Tahoe Ted. Tahoe Ted says, nature doesn’t change: “Guys have to fuck and women have to earn a living.” http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2...0208-skintrade
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#4
March 18th, 2016
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What exactly was the crime committed? A bunch of dudes getting together and talking about their exploits? Didnt you guys just do that a couple weeks ago?
The other thing was if your website is maintained on a server overseas how can they legally touch it? I keep waiting for the hammer to come down on HX. I suppose its just a matter of time.
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#5
March 18th, 2016
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So depressing. we really have entered an era where we have no rights, no privacy, nothing. And the cops didn't even have to use high tech means of identifying The League members...followed them to the parking lot and ran their license plates. And as Hugh says, what crime was committed? I'm really bummed about this whole LE crack down on our hobby. The religious right has recaptured this country, back to Puritanism, lads. Better find ourselves a black suit and resign ourselves to sex with one ugly, demanding woman for the rest of our miserable lives! May be time to follow my brother off to Thailand...
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#6
March 18th, 2016
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Thank You SWOP
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I continue to support SWOP, Sex Workers Outreach Project, and MPR members should too. There's a Los Angeles Chapter, also one in the Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, and numerous other cities. Read this statement about LE shutting down www.TheReviewboard.net from Savannah Sly -----> “Migrant sex workers, especially Asian migrant sex workers, are often inaccurately labeled as trafficking victims,” Savannah Sly, SWOP-USA Board President and former Seattle-based sex worker, said. “Just because a women came to the U.S. and works as an escort does not mean she did so involuntarily. These assumptions are blatantly racist and xenophobic. Many migrant workers in the sex trade, emigrate and work voluntarily, because it’s often their best option for addressing issues of poverty, crime, and family needs, at home. It’s criminalization and stigma of sex work and immigration status that makes these workers so vulnerable in the U.S., not the work itself." The seizure of www.TheReviewboard.net follows a long pattern of attacks on the adult entertainment websites: the summer raid on Rentboy.com the 2014 raid and seizure of My Redbook, and constant, relentless extra-legal pressure on advertising websites like Craigslist and www.Backpage.com “We already know that closing adult websites hurts sex workers and removes law enforcement’s ability to identify actual instances of trafficking” Savannah Sly, SWOP-USA Board President and former Seattle-based sex worker, said, pointing to research following the closure of a similar website, MyRedbook. “It displaces sex workers. It jeopardizes the autonomy and safety of the most marginalized sex workers–especially non-native sex workers and sex workers of color, forcing them to rely on third parties or to engage in street-based sex work which is riskier. It disrupts communities. It increases the marginalization of an already marginalized group. And it doesn’t stop trafficking.” Read the complete SWOP press release -----> http://www.swopusa.org/statement-swo...-review-board/ I posted a recent photo of Savannah working at home for SWOP. If you're on Twitter follow her @SavannahSly and @SWOPUSA Her email address is [email protected] Savannah Sly ------> Last edited by Libertine; October 30th, 2016 at 06:48 PM.
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#7
March 18th, 2016
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#8
March 18th, 2016
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The League sounds like any number of private groups that many of us have been members of. Scary to think the guy sitting across from you at GZ might be a piggie in a plain brown wrapper. What's up with that, anyway? Are we Al Qaeda? Are they going to try and ding us for "promoting or advancing" prostitution? It's bad enough they have that "intent" to engage in prostitution thing. Now we can't even talk about doing something that's a chickenshit misdemeanor? Well, it's a misdemeanor for now. Maybe the next crusading politician will make all of us so-called "sex patrons" into felons and registered sex offenders. I mean, who would object if they did? The ACLU?
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#9
March 18th, 2016
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The Review Board
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written by staff editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown The site www.TheReviewboard.net (TRB) was an online mainstay of the Seattle sex industry and it previously provided a space for clients and sex workers to dish on one another in the interest of lust and safety, as well offered a free-advertising venue. But like so many tools that make life easier for those in the sex trade, this one runs afoul of our government's new mission to "end demand" for prostitution, which it has rechristened "modern slavery." "The persistent criminalizing of communication based on hypothetical sexual behavior should be disturbing to everyone," said Mistress Matisse, a Seattle-based dominatrix and leading sex-worker rights activist, "the use of police resources to raid and shutdown sex worker resources like TRB message board does not reduce trafficking or make anyone safer. Instead, it increases sex worker's reliance on (possibly coercive) third parties, and makes it harder for us to screen clients for safety." If the past few years are any indication, federal agents are more than happy to spend their time playing website whack-a-mole. First it was Craigslist's "adult" section. In 2014, it was MyRedbook.com. Then, last year, the Department of Homeland Security took down gay-escort site Rentboy.com And everyone from U.S. Senators to obsessed Illinois sheriffs have been trying to shut down the classified-ad site Backpage. The shutdown of www.TheReviewboard.net is just the government's latest attempt to go after consensual prostitution by stoking fears about forced sex trafficking, and it doesn't matter if they're actually putting everyone more at risk and making trafficking investigations harder. The goal has never been about sex worker safety or saving victims, it's about punishing people whom the government views as blatantly skirting its rules and then wringing from them all the assets that it can. A local TV news report aired that didn't merely parrot police talking points. News video -> http://www.kiro7.com/news/sex-worker...s-saf/40003683 <- Newscasters actually allowed sex workers to speak for themselves about the site's shutdown and how it puts them at risk. Maggie McNeill, an outspoken sex worker advocate, said "There are thousands of sex workers in the Seattle area who enter the profession voluntarily, and are not slaves, or victims, and the sad irony is that the narrative that the police and the prosecutors are using is that they're doing this to protect sex workers, when in actuality, by doing this they endanger sex workers." Seattle recently received a $1.5 million grant from the Justice Department to help "eradicate human trafficking" and "end modern slavery."
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#10
March 19th, 2016
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Escort license
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written by staff editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown Escorts may accompany their clients to events or join them for other forms of non-sexual companionship, and this is perfectly legal. Yet most of the time, escorting is a euphemism for some sort of sex work. And when you add sexual services into this equation, the activity then becomes a crime. Being an escort does not necessarily mean one is engaged in prostitution, police can't just go around arresting anyone who advertises as an escort. But that is about to change. Ostensibly, cops must still interact with the individual and get them to agree to some sort of sexual activity for a fee. As Eau Claire, Wisconsin Assistant City Attorney Douglas Hoffer put it, police are forced to do "intensive investigations" and get their targets to use "explicit language" in order to make charges stick. Now Eau Claire, Wisconsin city officials are changing that. Escorts and escort businesses will have to be licensed by the city and subject to extensive regulations. Any escort operating without a license would be subject to a fine of up to $5,000. But that's not all: the law also punishes customers who contract with unlicensed escorts. Hoffner said the idea is to end "demand" for prostitution. Anyone attempting to hire an unlicensed escort could also be charged up to $5,000, as well. To get an escort license, Eau Claire residents would have to undergo a background check and pay a $200 annual fee; for escort business owners the annual fee would be $500, in addition to a $500 application fee. Hoffer told local news station WEAU that the city expects to receive "little to no applications" for such licenses. In other Wisconsin cities with similar laws, including Milwaukee, Gree Bay, and La Crosse, no licenses have ever been granted. So what's the point, if no one will actually apply for or be granted an escort license? So authorities don't have to go through the trouble of tricking sex workers into offering sex to undercover cops, of course. Now law enforcement could simply punish anyone who advertises escort services online but is not registered with the city. Said Eau Claire City Attorney Stephen Nick: "This is another means, as opposed to actually having evidence of an act of prostitution, pandering, or offering a sexual act for money, so we can follow up" on sex work suspects. He bragged to the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram that it would allow the city to bring in more money in fines while using fewer police resources.
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