The Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized the domain names, and shut down the web sites MyRedbook.com and SFRedbook.com early Wednesday morning.
Their operators were charged with aiding a racketeering enterprise, and several counts of money laundering, after generating as much as $5 million dollars from prostitution fees.
According to the indictment:
“The websites hosted advertisements for prostitutes, complete with explicit photos, lewd physical descriptions, menus of sexual services, hourly and nightly rates, and customer reviews of the prostitutes’ services.”
Judging from previous screenshots of these web sites, one had to be a member to view the content and participate in the activities that it promoted.
Currently, the web sites display a message from the FBI:
“This domain name has been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as the result of a joint investigation by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. This domain name is subject to both civil and criminal forfeiture. This seizure is based on probable cause to believe that this domain name was involved in money laundering derived from racketeering based on prostitution in violation of state and federal law.”
View the full indictment below:
