Yet white people keep bringing up black and Hispanic people all the time... let me sip my tea.
Federal authorities named two men in Utah as part of information unsealed Tuesday about the years-long investigation.
“These are the bottom-feeders of the criminal world. There are no lengths to which we will not go to protect our children from these wretched individuals,” said IRS Chief of Criminal Investigations Don Fort at a news conference Wednesday morning.
The investigation shut down a site on the dark web called "Welcome to Video." Court documents state the site, administered by 23-year-old Jong Woo Son of South Korea, hosted at least eight terabytes of child pornography — roughly 250,000 unique videos.
Prosecutors say the seizure is one of the largest of its kind, and videos from the site are currently being analyzed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Officials from that organization said approximately 45% of the seized videos contain new images that were not previously known to exist, according to information released by prosecutors.
“Sexual exploitation of children is one of the worst forms of evil imaginable. Indeed, these crimes are so heinous they are difficult even to speak about,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie Liu. Three hundred thirty-seven people in 38 countries were arrested in connection with the investigation of "Welcome to Video." Nikolas Bennion Bradshaw, 24, of Bountiful, and Michael Don Gibbs, 37, of Holladay, were named by federal prosecutors Wednesday as users of "Welcome to Video."
Bradshaw was charged in Utah State Court in 2018 with five counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor. Court documents state he told investigators that he "routinely receives and distributes child pornography" on his cell phone.
He pleaded guilty in late 2018 to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and a judge ordered him to a term of probation. He is back in the Davis County Jail after violating his probation, according to court records.
Gibbs was charged in federal court with receipt and possession of child pornography. He is scheduled to face trial in January, according to court records.
Prosecutors say the case against "Welcome to Video" is unique because the site accepted bitcoin as payment. Images of the site provided by prosecutors show a six-month subscription to the site in exchange for .03 bitcoin — approximately $250.
Criminal investigators from the IRS were able to use cryptocurrency payments to track down the site’s server in South Korea. Prosecutors say "Welcome to Video" was the first site to monetize child exploitation videos using bitcoin.
Fort, the IRS agent, says investigators are continuing to track cryptocurrency payments to find and prosecute people who produce, share, or view child pornography.