August 26, 2015 | The Biz

Rentboy.com offices raided, arrests made

Seven people have been arrested as part of a raid on the RentBoy.com offices in New York. The raid was conducted by agents of the Department of Homeland Security in conjunction with the NYPD.

Boxes were removed from the offices and bank accounts have been seized.

CEO Jeffrey Hunt was one of the men arrested. According to reports, the potential charges include prostitution and money laundering. The exchange of sex for money is illegal in all US states except for Nevada (which has allowances for brothel based businesses).

“As alleged, 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 acting U.S. Attorney Kelly Currie.

The site says it is "the world's destination to meet the perfect male escort or masseur," and offers a massive database of more than 10,500 men in more than 2,100 cities worldwide.

Rentboy.com marketing director Michael Sean Belman, aka Sean Van Sant, once said, "We say the escorts are selling their time only. What happens between you and the escort is up to you. That's the way it's considered legal." (Belman is apparently one of the arrested employees, as well.)

Obviously, the government disagreed.

The Department of Homeland Security was involved because of the issue of transferring money across state lines. "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," Glenn Sorge, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, said in a statement.

Five gay groups spoke out against the arrests. Lambda Legal, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Transgender Law Center called on government to decriminalize sex work.

"Laws criminalizing sexual exchange—whether by the seller or the buyer—impede sex workers’ ability to negotiate condom use and other boundaries, and force many to work in hidden or remote places where they are more vulnerable to violence," they argued in a joint statement. "Research and experience have shown that these laws serve only to drive the industry further underground, make workers less able to negotiate with customers on their own terms, and put those who engage in criminalized sex work at higher risk for abduction and sex trafficking."