MANHATTAN — The CEO of the male escort service rentboy.com was arrested Tuesday morning along with six employees for promoting prostitution in the U.S. and internationally, federal officials said.
The website, which was founded in 1997 and run by CEO Jeffrey Hurant, bills itself as the "world's largest male escort site," but insists it is only a place for escorts to post ads for their services and nothing more.
But rentboy.com's service violated the Travel Act by promoting prostitution, federal officials said.
The site charged for its services, officials said. Subscribers paid $59.95 a month while advertisers can pay hundreds of dollars for a posting.
The site earned more than $10 million between 2010 and 2015, federal officials said.
"Rentboy.com attempted to present a veneer of legality, when in fact this Internet brothel made millions of dollars from the promotion of illegal prostitution," said Kelly Currie, the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The site was based in New York but its reach extended to major cities around the country and around the world as well.
"The facilitation and promotion of prostitution offenses across state lines and international borders is a federal crime made even more egregious when it's blatantly advertised by a global criminal enterprise," said Glenn Sorge with Homeland Security Investigations.
The website was down as of 1:42 p.m. Tuesday, but its social media accounts were still live.
The other employees who were arrested included Michael Sean Belman, Clint Calero, Edward Lorenz Estanol, Shane Lukas, Diana Milagros Mattos and Marco Soto Decker, officials said.
Their roles in the company were not immediately clear.
If they are found guilty, they face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, federal officials said.
The site also tried to empower sex workers, promoting a positive outlook of the career with the hashtag #LoveWhatIDo and it even started a scholarship for men in the field.
