Man who operated websites for escorts sentenced to more than 8 years in prison

A man who admitted to running websites that promoted sex trafficking and prostitution was sentenced on Monday to serve more than eight years in prison.

Wilhan Martono, 48, operated multiple websites, including CityXGuide, that advertised sex work until June 2020, when they were seized by Homeland Security Investigations. He was arrested in Fresno, Calif., the same day that federal authorities seized the websites, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.

In August 2021, Martono pleaded guilty 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, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Martono’s plea was the first to be entered through a 2018 law that allows federal authorities to prosecute sex trafficking websites called the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, a news release says.

He was sentenced to 97 months in prison and has been ordered to forfeit more than $15 million in assets, which include more than $2 million in silver and $1 million in cryptocurrency, according to a Monday news release.

Chief U.S. District Judge David Godbey presided over the sentencing.

In June 2021, Curtis Vance Mathis pleaded guilty to trafficking children, including a 13-year-old girl out of a hotel room in Irving, and admitted to using one of Martono’s websites. He was sentenced earlier this year to serve more than 11 years in prison.

“The owner of CityXGuide intentionally disregarded the blatant sexual abuse occurring on his platform. He profited off of the exploitation of vulnerable women and children, just like the traffickers advertising them on his website did,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham said in the release.

Peter Barrett, Martono’s lawyer, said he thought the case should have been sentenced through the lens of a promotion of prostitution case.

“I think that the judge viewed the case as more of a sex trafficking case,” Barrett said.