A Florida modeling website has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges for obscene pictures which netted the company over $1 million.
Webe Web Corporation admitted one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and 16 counts of transporting child pornography in the Northern District of Alabama court. President Marc Evan Greenberg also pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering.
According to court documents, Webe Web was the registered owner of a website called www.childsupermodels.com. This was marketed as a child modeling website promoting models between seven and 16 years old, and contained hyperlinks to websites featuring individual ‘child supermodels’.
Greenberg and Webe Web admitted that the websites for 16 of these children contained images that amounted to child pornography. In some of the photos, the victims, all girls aged eight to 15, were wearing lingerie, bathing suits and other revealing outfits, and were posed in provocative positions. Viewers of the websites could preview a certain number of images for free on the website homepage, and could access additional photographs for approximately $30 per month.
Greenberg and Webe Web admitted that these websites generated around $1 million in revenue.
The company also drummed up business though a website known as Babble Club, which hosted discussion boards and groups devoted to each child. Babble Club members made postings to the discussion boards, which included comments on the type of clothing and poses they liked, and even poetry written to the photographed child.
Webe Web has agreed to forfeit $1 million and 19 internet domain names. Sentencing for Greenberg and Webe Web is scheduled for August, when Greenberg will face up to 10 years in prison.
The photographs concerned were taken by Jeff Pierson, who pleaded guilty in January 2007 to conspiracy to transport child pornography and transportation of child pornography. Jeffrey Robert Libman, the vice president and director of Webe Web, was charged in October 2006 with conspiracy to produce child pornography and transportation of child pornography, charges which are still pending.