'Welcome to Video' Son Jung-woo Sentenced to 2 Years for Concealing Criminal Proceeds... Court Imprisonment
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Son Jeong-woo (26, male), who operated the world's largest dark web site for child sexual exploitation materials 'Welcome to Video (W2V)' and completed his prison sentence, has been sentenced to prison again and taken into custody for charges including concealing criminal proceeds.
On the afternoon of the 5th, Judge Jo Su-yeon of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 5 sentenced Son Jeong-woo to 2 years in prison and a fine of 5 million won. Son Jeong-woo admitted all charges during the trial.
Son Jeong-woo is accused of laundering and converting into cash approximately 400 million won worth of Bitcoin, received as payment for child sexual exploitation materials, through multiple cryptocurrency exchange accounts and bank accounts under his own or his father's name, thereby concealing criminal proceeds. He was also indicted for online gambling worth about 5.6 million won on several occasions.
Previously, Son Jeong-woo was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison for creating the 'Welcome to Video' site on the dark web, accessible only via a special browser, and trading child sexual exploitation materials from 2015 to 2018. At the time of his initial arrest, 20,000 videos totaling 8 terabytes (TB) were stored on the server, including videos of sexual exploitation of infants as young as 6 months old.
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He was also indicted by a U.S. court, and the U.S. requested extradition under the extradition treaty after Son Jeong-woo was released in April 2020 upon completion of his sentence. However, in July of that year, after his father reported charges including concealment of criminal proceeds, the Seoul High Court denied the extradition, stating that "it is preferable for our country to secure custody and exercise criminal jurisdiction."
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