2004 Ukrainian child pornography raids

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 2004 Ukrainian child pornography raids occurred in July 2004, when police in Ukraine raided a child pornography ring operating in the cities of Kiev, Kharkov and Simferopol.^[1] The ring had operated since 2001, and used a modeling agency as a front.^[1] Approximately 1,500 girls aged from eight to sixteen were said to have been to the agency. Pornographic and erotic materials produced by the agency were distributed over the internet to the United States and Canada.

The agency, known as Ukrainian Angels Studio, streamed on the web was called LS Models and had a number of different domains such as LS Island, LS Magazine and LS Dreams. The sites managed to stay away from controversy with its viewers claiming each site was completely legal under the US constitution^{[citation needed]}

The Crime Investigation Department of the Ministry for the Interior conducted the raids. The deputy head of the department, Vitaly Yarema, said that the bank accounts of the agency, containing hundreds of thousands of dollars, had been frozen.^[1] Ukrainian Angels Studios actually began work much eariler, around 1999 or 2000. They split in 2001 into two separate outlets, LS and BD. BD had its own series of photos and videos which lasted until 2004. Many of the models went to other studios, none lasting more than a year. The last known groups were Karina World and Pink-Teens. Both closed in 2007. They featured former LS Models, now a lot older but again it came crashing down. Every studio faced the same fate as LS and BD.

The raids were conducted after a joint investigation between Ukrainian police and the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2005, the United States Department of State announced that there was further cooperation between Ukrainian police and other law enforcement agencies internationally.^[2]

The investigation following the raids was completed by 6 April 2005.^[3]

Two leaders of the agency were taken into custody but have since been released.^{[citation needed]} A few older issues reportedly can still be found on the internet along with a few different shut down agencies, similar to that of LS.