Daily Caller: The creator of a website that allows users to doxx people who call the police served two years in federal prison for threatening to kill a woman who said false information was posted about her on one of his other sites, court documents show.
A federal grand jury indicted Cyrus Sullivan in 2013 on charges of extortion and internet stalking for demanding the woman pay him $10,000 to remove her information from his website, STD Carriers. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one charge of making a threatening communication.
In return, federal prosecutors agreed not to pursue additional charges “known to the [U.S. Attorney’s Office] at the time of this agreement,” the plea agreement stated.
Prosecutors said in a court filing one month before Sullivan entered his guilty plea that the network of websites he operates was a fraudulent scheme. They said he profited from the “substantial emotional distress” imposed on his victims because of “false and/or malicious postings” about them on his websites. read more
There’s a late 1920’s/early ’30’s William Powell movie on YT, titled “Man of the World” (with Carol Lombard and a great cast), about this very racket. Powell plays a disgraced American journalist living as an ex-pat in Paris who prints a rag about the activities of visiting American business men and socialites. He then acts the outraged friend to these hapless people and offers his service as intermediary to the blackquard extorting them. It’s such a quaint, old film. I had no idea someone could get away with such a scheme today.
Powell had to flee to South Africa to avoid incarceration. Maybe they should send this guy there to serve his sentence.
What a piece of shit this guy is. It sounds like the only way to get your name off one of his websites is to use the reputation service website he runs. It’s a nasty little circle. This is what happens when the court decides to save money and time by dropping other charges (and as in his prior criminal case the Judge decides he doesn’t want to debate whether his websites are criminal) if the accused pleads out to only one and cuts a sentencing deal. In any event this guy is such a skell he needs to have his websites, bank accounts, credit cards and everything else controlled only hacked and destroyed.
The record clearly shows who the real victim was.
Plea bargains free the guilty and convict the innocent.
They should not be allowed.
@AA – nice reference. I saw that movie many years ago and now that you mention it, it does fit. I may have to watch it again, though I didn’t think much about it the first time. With the new context, maybe it will be better.