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The 23-year-old South Korean is accused of running “the world’s largest child sexual exploitation market,” which reportedly processed 7,300 Bitcoin transactions worth more than $ 730,000.

According to a criminal indictment unsealed today, a now-defunct English-language website known as” Welcome to video ” showed more than 250,000 videos of child exploitation – roughly eight terabytes worth of gruesome material.

Us prosecutors say the online marketplace is run by Jong Woo Song, who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence in his native Korea following his conviction on child exploitation charges.

The son was arrested on March 5, 2018, when authorities seized the server he used to work at the facility.

Authorities also arrested and charged another 337 users of the site in the United States, Britain, Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Brazil and Australia.

“Welcome To Video” was live from June 2015 to March 2018, when it was seized and shut down by US authorities.

He offered the video for sale in exchange for Bitcoin. The website itself boasted more than one million downloads of child exploitation videos by users.

Each user received a unique Bitcoin BTC address when creating an account on the site.

Server analysis revealed that the website had over a million Bitcoin addresses, meaning it was able to handle at least one million users.

The forfeiture complaint, unsealed today, alleges that law enforcement was able to track Bitcoin payments to a dark website by following funds on the blockchain.

The virtual currency accounts cited in the complaint were allegedly used by 24 individuals in five countries to Fund the website and promote child exploitation. Prosecutors are trying to confiscate bitcoin stored in these accounts.

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most repugnant and reprehensible forms of criminal behavior,” said assistant attorney General Brian A. Benchkowski of the justice Department’s criminal division.

“Children around the world are safer because of the actions taken by American and foreign law enforcement agencies to prosecute this case and recover funds for victims,” said U.S. attorney Jesse K. Liu. “We will continue to prosecute such criminals and turn off darknet in the United States and abroad to ensure that they receive the punishment their terrible crimes deserve.”

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