SHREVEPORT, La. - A Monroe man was convicted in federal court this week for his participation in an international online porn network that required members to post images and video of child sexual abuse.
John Wyss, 55, went by the pseudonym "Bones" on the members-only site Dreamboard, according to an indictment in U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana. He was found guilty Thursday, May 17, after a four-day trial, on one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, one count of conspiracy to advertise child pornography and one count of conspiracy to distribute child pornography.
Evidence presented at trial revealed Wyss was a member of Dreamboard since January 2008 and made numerous postings showing he had produced and shared child pornography via webcam, including one video in which men engaged in sexual intercourse with prepubescent girls, according to a Department of Justice news release.
Wyss is one of 72 defendants in the case, the result of an ongoing investigation of Dreamboard launched in 2009 under the name "Operation Delego."
The case is the largest prosecution of its kind to date in the United States.
The indictment describes what Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer calls a "horrifying online community" that encouraged the creation and collection of images and videos showing adults molesting children.
According to the indictment:
The rules of Dreamboard, provided in English, Russian, Japanese and Spanish, required users to post pornography depicting children younger than 13 in order to become members and to keep posting regularly or risk getting barred from the site.
An administrator on the site specified a rule to "keep the girls under 13," adding, "in fact, I really need to see 12 or younger to know your (sic) a brother."
Dreamboard posted in categories, included one for pornography of adults having violent sexual intercourse with "very young kids" who were subjected to both physical and sexual abuse and in obvious "distress, and/or crying."
The indictment gives dates and names for about 70 porn files advertised on the site by those charged in the case. Many of the file names are graphic in their description, and several specify porn involving a "baby" or children "4 to 10 yrs old" (sic).
Wyss posted three ads on Dreamboard in December 2009, offering to distribute videos of child pornography.
He is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 6.
Of the 72 charged in the case, 55 have been arrested in the U.S. and across five continents, including in Denmark, Ecuador, Hungary, Kenya, the Philippines, Qatar and Switzerland. Forty-one have pleaded guilty, and of these, 25 have been sentenced to prison for sentences of 15 to 37 years.
Seventeen of those charged remain at large and are known only by their online aliases. Efforts are ongoing to arrest these suspects, according to the Department of Justice.
Operation Delego found evidence that at least 38 children worldwide had suffered sexual abuse by Dreamboard members. Efforts to locate and identify victims are ongoing.
The investigation is coordinated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with assistance from the Department of Justice and Eurojust, the European Union's judicial authority in cross-border crime investigation. ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and suspicious activity through a toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (347-2423).
John Wyss, 55, went by the pseudonym "Bones" on the members-only site Dreamboard, according to an indictment in U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana. He was found guilty Thursday, May 17, after a four-day trial, on one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, one count of conspiracy to advertise child pornography and one count of conspiracy to distribute child pornography.
Evidence presented at trial revealed Wyss was a member of Dreamboard since January 2008 and made numerous postings showing he had produced and shared child pornography via webcam, including one video in which men engaged in sexual intercourse with prepubescent girls, according to a Department of Justice news release.
Wyss is one of 72 defendants in the case, the result of an ongoing investigation of Dreamboard launched in 2009 under the name "Operation Delego."
The case is the largest prosecution of its kind to date in the United States.
The indictment describes what Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer calls a "horrifying online community" that encouraged the creation and collection of images and videos showing adults molesting children.
According to the indictment:
The rules of Dreamboard, provided in English, Russian, Japanese and Spanish, required users to post pornography depicting children younger than 13 in order to become members and to keep posting regularly or risk getting barred from the site.
An administrator on the site specified a rule to "keep the girls under 13," adding, "in fact, I really need to see 12 or younger to know your (sic) a brother."
Dreamboard posted in categories, included one for pornography of adults having violent sexual intercourse with "very young kids" who were subjected to both physical and sexual abuse and in obvious "distress, and/or crying."
The indictment gives dates and names for about 70 porn files advertised on the site by those charged in the case. Many of the file names are graphic in their description, and several specify porn involving a "baby" or children "4 to 10 yrs old" (sic).
Wyss posted three ads on Dreamboard in December 2009, offering to distribute videos of child pornography.
He is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 6.
Of the 72 charged in the case, 55 have been arrested in the U.S. and across five continents, including in Denmark, Ecuador, Hungary, Kenya, the Philippines, Qatar and Switzerland. Forty-one have pleaded guilty, and of these, 25 have been sentenced to prison for sentences of 15 to 37 years.
Seventeen of those charged remain at large and are known only by their online aliases. Efforts are ongoing to arrest these suspects, according to the Department of Justice.
Operation Delego found evidence that at least 38 children worldwide had suffered sexual abuse by Dreamboard members. Efforts to locate and identify victims are ongoing.
The investigation is coordinated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with assistance from the Department of Justice and Eurojust, the European Union's judicial authority in cross-border crime investigation. ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and suspicious activity through a toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (347-2423).