Welcome to Video case
[2] Son purchased the website Welcome to Video in July 2015, operating a server from his home in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, until March 2018.
[9] Judge Choi Mi-bok, of the Seoul Central District Court, said in a ruling: "the defendant's crimes are harmful to society" adding "he is young and has no criminal history, and he is reflecting on himself."
As a mitigating factor in the sentencing, she noted Son wasn't alone in posting pornography to the Welcome to Video site and other members were also culpable.
[10] In May 2019, the second trial court sentenced him to one and a half years in prison, stating "Acts such as selling child pornography for a large profit for a long time can distort the perception of children sexually.
[7] In October 2019, when authorities publicly announced the international investigation, US prosecutors indicted Son on nine charges, including conspiracy to post child pornography.
[12][13][14][15] The extradition warrant had been filed for international money laundering, a crime in South Korea which did not overlap with the convictions made domestically.
[11] At a 19 May hearing, the prosecution argued that the evidence was sufficient for extradition, while Son's lawyer expressed concerns about additional punishment (double jeopardy).
[20][21] Americans convicted and sentenced for their roles in the case include: The National Crime Agency released the names and faces of users of the website.
Matthew Falder, a Cambridge-educated geophysical researcher at the University of Birmingham who coerced numerous victims into sending him pictures of them hurting themselves, was arrested in June 2017 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
[29][30][31] He was flown home in complete secrecy in March 2019, after the American investigators identified him;[32] the Hungarian public learned about the case in February 2020.
[33][29][30] The sentence has widely been considered too lenient, with major public figures calling it outrageous, unacceptable[34] and "basically an acquittal".
