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June 19, 2020 Dallas , TX , United States Human Smuggling/Trafficking
ICE HSI Dallas leads investigation to shut down website promoting prostitution and sex trafficking, indictment of owner
"This case is a harsh reminder of the ruthlessness of human traffickers and lengths to which they go, including victimizing women and children, to make a profit," said Ryan L. Spradlin, special agent in charge of HSI Dallas. "HSI maintains its unwavering commitment to investigate these heinous crimes, rescue victims, and prosecute the offenders to the fullest extent of the law."
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DALLAS — The website CityXGuide.com – a leading source of online advertisements for prostitution and sex trafficking that users described as "taking over from where Backpage left off" – has been seized and its owner charged in a 28-count federal indictment.
Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) assigned to HSI Dallas conducted the investigation. The North Texas Trafficking Task Force spearheaded the investigation with the assistance from the U.S. Secret Service, the Colleyville Police Department as well as HSI El Paso (Texas), HSI San Jose (California) and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Wilhan Martono, 46, was indicted June 2 on one count of promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking, one count of interstate racketeering conspiracy (facilitating prostitution), nine counts of interstate transportation in aid of racketeering (facilitating prostitution), and 17 counts of money laundering. On June 17, HSI and U.S. Secret Service agents arrested him in Fremont, California.
Shortly after the defendant's arrest, CityXGuide was replaced with a splash page notifying users that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had seized the website pursuant to a warrant.
According to the indictment, Martono allegedly netted more than $21 million off a suite of illicit websites promoting prostitution and sex trafficking. He allegedly registered the domain names for several of the sites just one day after the FBI shut down Backpage.com, then the Internet's leading source of prostitution and sex trafficking advertisements.
Despite terms of use purportedly forbidding the advertisement of illegal sexual services, CityXGuide and its affiliated websites (Backpage.co, CAPleasures.com, and BodyRubShop.com, among others) allegedly allowed brothels, pimps and prostitutes to post hundreds of thousands of advertisements for sexual services, which users could then filter by geography and preference.
In correspondence with Martono, one of his CityXGuide advertisers noted that the website was "taking over from where Backpage left off."
CityXGuide and its companion websites allegedly allowed advertisers to select from a pre-populated list of "intimate activities," then add nude photographs, descriptions, work hours, methods of payment, and contact information for the women being advertised. To secure premium placement, the websites offered paid "upgrades," which could be purchased in Bitcoin or in exchange for gift cards from Walmart, Best Buy, Lowe's, Amazon and other retailers. Martono allegedly used CardCash, a third-party gift card reseller, to exchange these gift cards for U.S. currency.
Martono allegedly took steps to conceal his online activity by routing website traffic through an IP address in Europe, using a VPN to mask his IP address while conducting CardCash transactions, and funneling his proceeds through a network of business and personal bank accounts. At the time of Martono's arrest, DHS seized millions of dollars from accounts he controlled.
CityXGuide, which served clients across the globe, included a list of 14 "Favorite Cities," including Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and Boston.
Law enforcement has identified numerous minor victims in CityXGuide advertisements, including a 13-year-old Jane Doe rescued in North Texas in November 2019.
An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Martono is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in federal prison.
Martono was charged in part under FOSTA, a law passed in the wake of the Backpage scandal in April 2018 that allows the federal government to prosecute websites that facilitate sex trafficking.
Assistant United States Attorneys Sid Mody, Rebekah Ricketts and John de la Garza are prosecuting the case.
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CityXGuide seized and shut down; owner indicted for sex trafficking
By Brandon Showalter , Senior Investigative Reporter
© 2022 The Christian Post, INC . All Rights Reserved.
The owner of CityXGuide, the website that users have described as having taken over where Backpage.com left off, has been indicted on sex trafficking charges and the site has been shut down.
According to the Justice Department on Friday, CityXGuide, a leading online source of ads for prostitution and trafficking, has been seized and the owner has been charged with 28 federal criminal counts.
Wilham Martono was indicted earlier this month on one count promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking and on another separate count of interstate racketeering conspiracy, which means facilitating prostitution. Other charges included interstate transportation in aid of racketeering and money laundering. Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Secret Service arrested Martono last week.
Following his arrest, his website was officially seized and "replaced with a splash page notifying users that the website had been seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pursuant to a warrant," according to a DOJ release.
“As soon as DOJ shut down one despicable site, another popped up to take its place,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox.
“Like the owners of Backpage, this defendant made millions facilitating the online exploitation of women and children. The Justice Department will not rest until these sites are eliminated and their owners held accountable for their crimes.”
Martono reportedly gained over $21 million from several websites promoting prostitution and sex trafficking having registered the domain names for the sites the day after federal authorities seized Backpage.com, a site that was long known for its promotion and facilitating of prostitution and sex trafficking, including the exploitation of minors.
A 2017 U.S. Senate investigation report into Backpage showed that its company staff had manipulated its content to conceal instances of criminality like child sex trafficking. Such terms that site operators automatically stripped from trafficking ads before publication included “lolita,” “teenage,” “rape,” “young,” “amber alert,” “little girl,” “teen,” “fresh,” “innocent,” and “school girl.”
“This case is a harsh reminder of the ruthlessness of human traffickers and lengths to which they go, including victimizing women and children, to make a profit,” Ryan L. Spradlin, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office, said of the shutting down of CityXGuide and Martono arrest.
“HSI maintains its unwavering commitment to investigate these heinous crimes, rescue victims, and prosecute the offenders to the fullest extent of the law.”
The DOJ added that it had identified a number of minor victims in CityXGuide ads, including a 13-year-old girl who was recovered in North Texas in November.
Martono could face up to 25 years in federal prison if he is convicted.
He was charged in part under a relatively new federal law that President Donald Trump signed in 2018, called the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act-Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act, which occurred soon after the federal seizure of Backpage. The law enabled the federal government to prosecute websites that facilitate sex trafficking.
FOSTA-SESTA updated the existing law to clarify the nation's existing statutes, outlawing knowingly assisting, facilitating, or supporting sex trafficking. The law also amended Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to exclude enforcement of federal or state sex trafficking laws from its immunity.
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Erin Dooley
Press Officer
214-659-8707
erin.dooley@usodj.gov
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas is seeking individuals who were trafficked on CityXGuide, a commercial sex website shut down by the federal government in June 2020, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah.
Prosecutors are requesting that victims — who are afforded rights under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act ( CRVA ) and may be eligible for restitution — visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/united-states-v-wilhan-martono-cityxguide to submit their information.
The U.S. Attorney’s questionnaire will allow victims to outline any physical or mental health injuries they sustained as a result of human trafficking (information that is critically important to request court-ordered victim compensation at sentencing) and to share their thoughts on the sentence the judge should impose on CityXGuide owner Wilhan Martono.
Mr. Martono, 47, was arrested on June 19, 2020, the same day his websites were seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He pleaded guilty on Aug. 24, 2021 to one count of promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to engage in interstate transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises - facilitating prostitution. His plea is the first ever entered under the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act ( FOSTA ), a 2018 law that allows the federal government to prosecute websites that facilitate sex trafficking.
In plea papers, Mr. Martono admitted that he created, owned, and operated CityXGuide and a suite of related websites. He registered the domain names for several of the sites on April 8, 2018 — just one day after the feds shut down Backpage.com, then the internet’s leading source of commercial sex advertisements. Like Backpage, Mr. Martono’s sites allowed users, including traffickers, to post hundreds of thousands of commercial sex advertisements worldwide.
Mr. Martono admitted that he turned a blind eye to the illegal sex trafficking occurring on CityXGuide. Despite receiving numerous emails from federal, state, and local law enforcement informing him that CityXGuide and its companion websites were being used to facilitate sex trafficking and child exploitation, he continued to operate those sites in the United States and around the world. In court documents, prosecutors estimated that Mr. Martono netted more than $21 million off his websites, which users described as “taking over from where Backpage left off.”
Law enforcement has already identified numerous trafficking victims in CityXGuide advertisements, including a 13-year-old Jane Doe identified in North Texas in November 2019 and a 16-year-old Jane Doe identified in North Texas in March 2020. Prosecutors are engaged in an ongoing effort to notify all survivors of sex trafficking who were advertised on CityXGuide.
Potential victims include minors who were advertised on Cityxguide.com or a related website (including Cityxguide.net, Cityxguide.co, Cityxguide.be, Bodyrubshop.com, CAPleasures.com, or Backpage.co), as well as adults subjected to force, threats of force, fraud, and/or coercion at the time they were advertised on CityXGuide or a related website. Individuals do not need to reside in the Northern District of Texas to be considered victims in this case.
Under the CVRA, victims are entitled to reasonable, accurate, and timely notice of public court proceedings, the right to be treated with fairness and respect for their dignity and privacy, and the right to be reasonably heard at any public sentencing proceeding. For a more detailed description of victims' rights under the law, click here .
The North Texas Trafficking Task Force conducted the investigation, led by Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office, the United States Secret Service, and the Colleyville Police Department, with assistance from HSI’s El Paso and San Jose Field Offices as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant United States Attorneys Sid Mody, Rebekah Ricketts, and John de la Garza are prosecuting the case.

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In June 2020, the website cityxguide.com (“CityXGuide”)—a leading source of online advertisements for prostitution and sex trafficking—was seized by Homeland Security Investigations pursuant to a warrant. Wilhan Martono, the creator, owner, and operator of CityXGuide, was charged in a 28-count indictment with promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking, interstate racketeering conspiracy (facilitating prostitution), interstate transportation in aid of racketeering (facilitating prostitution), and money laundering. In August 2021, Martono pled guilty to Promotion and Facilitation of Prostitution and Reckless Disregard of Sex Trafficking in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2421A and Conspiracy to Engage in Interstate and Foreign Travel and Transportation In Aid of Racketeering Enterprises in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.
Martono created, owned, and operated a network of websites, including CityXGuide, that posted hundreds of thousands of prostitution advertisements in locations across the United States and around the world. CityXGuide allowed pimps, prostitutes, and brothels to post and pay for advertisements that featured an explicit list of “intimate activities,” along with nude or partially nude photographs, a physical description, work hours, methods of payment, and contact information for the female being advertised.
Martono purchased the domain names of CityXGuide and its related websites, purchased and maintained the servers that hosted the websites, and purchased the server space, server equipment, and blocks of Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses—including more than 95 unique IP addresses—to operate the websites.

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