Accomplice sentenced to 17.5 years in U.S. while mastermind 18 months in Korea

A U.S. accomplice of Son Jung-woo, the operator of the world’s largest child digital sex trafficking site, Welcome to Video, has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison on July 7.

This court decision is particularly significant as Vincent Galarza, an accomplice, received a 17 years and six months sentence in the United States, while Son Jung-woo, the mastermind of the crime, was sentenced to 18 months in South Korea in May 2019.

The Welcome To Video case involved the investigation and prosecution of a child pornography trafficking syndicate that sold video clips of child pornography through the dark website, Welcome to Video, which was established and operated by Son Jung-woo.

Law enforcement authorities estimated that the website had approximately 1.2 million members from 38 countries, with around 360,000 downloads made. It had 4,000 paying subscribers. As a result of international collaboration and investigations, 337 individuals were detained on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

Between 2015 and 2018, when Son ran the website ‘Welcome to Video,’ around 220,000 child pornography videos were released. Subscribers downloaded these video clips from the website, paying with cryptocurrency amounting to a total of 415 bitcoins (approximately 400 million won at the time).

Federal prosecutors stated that Vincent Galarza, 32, from New York, was sentenced on July 7 to 17 years and six months in prison for his involvement in operating Welcome to Video. This stands in contrast to the South Korean court’s sentence of 18 months for Son Jung-woo, the owner of Welcome to Video.

“Between May 31, 2017 and February 9, 2018, Galarza downloaded at least 174 videos from the website and uploaded approximately 560 videos, all of which depicted child pornography,” stated a federal prosecutor. The prosecutor further mentioned that “since the indictment of the operator, Son Jung-woo, 337 users of the site have been arrested and charged.”

Son was indicted in 2018 by federal prosecutors on nine counts of conspiracy, advertising, distribution, and money laundering related to child sex trafficking. However, in 2020, a South Korean court ruled against extraditing Son to the United States in response to a request from U.S. federal prosecutors.

In addition to Galarza’s sentence, federal prosecutors announced the sentencing of Nicholas Stengel (D.C. – 180 months), Charles Wunderlich (Kansas – 87 months with 15 years of supervised release), Ernest Wagner (Washington – 60 months with life probation), Darryl Miller (Kansas – 60 months with 5 years of supervised release), Jason DeJournett (California – 33 months in prison with life probation), Brian LaPrath (California – 18 months in prison), and Michael Ezeagbor (Texas – 5 years of probation).

“Further investigations into Welcome to Video users are ongoing,” added a federal prosecutor.

BY YEOL JANG    [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]