The CEO of Rentboy.com has checked into prison.
Jeffrey Hurant, the founder of the defunct male escort site, began his sentence on Monday at a medium security federal correctional institution in Otisville, New York.
In case you need a recap: In August 2015, Rentboy’s New York offices were raided by Homeland Security. A handful of employees were arrested alongside Hurant. They eventually had their charges dropped or they took deals, but Hurant pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Related: Rentboy’s former CEO Jeffrey Hurant sentenced to prison
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Prosecutors accused 51-year-old Hurant of running the “largest U.S. online male-escort service.” He sentenced to six months behind bars in August. In addition to that, he was ordered to pay a $7,500 fine and told he must undergo a mental health treatment program.
Many have long said Hurant was unfairly targeted because he operated a website used by gay and bisexual men, and that plenty of female escort sites are still running, with advertising being bought and sold across the internet.
US District Judge Margo Brodie, who oversaw the case, acknowledged this in her ruling but, she said, the law is the law.
“This case has kept me up many nights,” she said during sentencing, adding that she received more than 70 letters in support of the former CEO and website and that she believed the site was started “with good intentions.”
Hurant should be released next April, where he will then be placed on parole for one year.
Related: People are pissed about Rentboy CEO’s prison sentence
ChrisK
This is sick and an over reach by a Government branch meant to protect us from terrorism. I guess they needed to justify their budget.
Brian
Cut the drama. He got 6 months in jail for being a virtual pimp. People get arrested for prostitution every single day, there is no reason he should be exempt from the same laws the rest of us have to follow.
Josh447
Queerty Brian def: clueless.
Brian
No, clueless is thinking that because you disagree with a law, it shouldn’t be enforced. Clueless is running a prostitution ring in a very public way and thinking there won’t be consequences.
ChrisK
Go crawl into a corner or stick to what you know how to do best homocon. Defending Trump no matter what. But Hillary, Obama, etc.
Brian
Nah, responding to to posts with huge logical flaws is more fun. Especially when people can’t refute your argument, so they respond with that tired old chestnut “TRUMP LOVER!”
And there is more than one Brian who posts here. If it doesn’t have my picture as the avatar, it’s someone else.
THAT Steve
You can call prostitution a victimless crime or find it hinky Homeland Security got involved, but what he did was illegal and unless he’s a complete moron he knew that going in. Don’t moan about the sentence you get if you know damn well that’s the legal consequence of what you’re doing before you even start…
irbaboon
You are Milo Yiannopoulos, aren’t you?
Kangol
Sex work between consenting adults should not be illegal.
gaym50ish
The problem with this prosecution is that Hurant was NOT making money from the prostitution — only from the advertising. He wasn’t pimping. He was not running a prostitution ring. He was just offering a platform for rent boys to offer their services. It’s no different from what the Advocate used to do on its back pages before the magazine became “respectable.”
The mistake Hurant made, I believe, was in allowing the advertisers to be too graphic in advertising their services. If he had censored ads that boasted about “size,” and “versatility,” and limited them to advertising as models or escorts, I don’t think they could have shut him down without violating his constitutional protections.
Josh447
Good points.
Brian
He wasn’t just making money off of advertising. The escorts paid to be listed on the site, and subscribers paid to get access to the site.
Josh447
Qweerty Brian said “The escorts paid to be listed on the site, and subscribers paid to get access to the site.” Hey, clueless, what do you think making money off the advertising means.
Brian
Do you not understand what a subscription fee is? Here’s a hint, it’s not advertising.
You’re really bad at this. But keep trying dear.
Josh447
Sad very sad. The double standards in this country really suck big time. Total negative reaction to winning gay marriage. Some of the cops probably used the service to get off.
Creamsicle
I have never utilized a prostitution service, but I can see how this would make it possible to conduct your business much more safely. The punishment is 6 months and a <$10k fine. That barely qualifies as a deterent, and if anything just created a good where this site used to be. Nature abhors a vacuum. You can be sure that someone else's site saw a big bump in traffic as soon as that happened, especially since the johns were not the ones targetted by law enforcement.
This is as futile as the war on drugs.