NEWARK, N.J.- In what is one of the most significant child-pornography cases to be cracked in the U.S., authorities in New jersey have caught and charged 33 year-old- Ukrainian born Maksym Shynkarenko for running an international distribution ring of child pornography.
Shynkarneko found and ran a number of websites, along with three others, two from Ukraine and the other from Russia. Ad Soft, Illegal.cp., Sick Child Room, and Hottest Childporn Garden are the names of some of his websites, according to the Guardian. The websites were said to be running till 2008 and were based as well as operated from Ukraine.
The U.S. attorney General of the district of New Jersey, Paul Fishman, told Boston.com "Much of the pornography that Shynkarenko allegedly dealt in depicted graphic sexual assaults and the abuse of young children, in most cases by adults."
His ring was so vast that it resulted in over 560 convictions in the U.S. alone. Others have been convicted by other countries such as Canada. Of those convicted many were teachers, doctors and coaches according to boston.com.
He is being charged 32 counts including child exploitation, abuse, shipping & transporting child pornography and money laundering et al.
Shynkarenko was being held in Thailand since 2009. He was extradited from Thailand this weekend, where he had been fighting the extradition charges.
Assistant Public Defender Linda Foster, who will be defending Shynkarneko, has not yet responded to prosecutors. Shynkarneko is scheduled for an initial hearing in a Newark federal court later today.
