Modeling Websites Sexually Exploited Children: FL Officials

TAMPA, FL — A series of charges and convictions have been announced in connection with an international enterprise based in Florida that operated subscription-based sexually exploitive “child modeling” websites.

According to court documents, Kenneth Power of Weston, who died at age 58, was a principal member of the Newstar Enterprise, an online business aimed at for-profit sexual exploitation of vulnerable children under the guise of “child modeling” through a collection of websites called the Newstar Websites.

Patrice Eileen Wilowski-Mevorah, 53, of Tampa, and Mary Lou Bjorkman, 58, of Lutz, have pleaded guilty to laundering money for the Newstar Enterprise.

Other members of the Newstar Enterprise live in Europe.

Kenneth Power’s wife, Tatiana “Tanya” Power, 41, of Weston, is currently awaiting trial on money laundering charges in connection with the Newstar Enterprise.

According to court documents, Newstar Enterprise was started around 2005 and built, maintained, hosted and operated the Newstar Websites on servers in the United States and abroad.

To populate the Newstar Websites with content, Newstar Enterprise members enticed, solicited and recruited boys and girls under the age of 18, some of whom were prepubescent, to use as “child models” for the Newstar Websites.

Using the recruited child-victims, the Newstar Enterprise produced more than 4.6 million sexualized images and videos to distribute and sell on the Newstar Websites. Some of those images and videos, though non-nude, depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. For example, images and videos sold on the Newstar Websites depicted children as young as 6 years old in sexual and provocative poses, wearing police and cheerleader costumes, thong underwear, transparent underwear, revealing swimsuits, pantyhose and miniskirts.

Most of the child-victims were recruited from Ukraine, Moldova and other nations in Eastern Europe and were particularly vulnerable due to their age, family structure and poverty.

Law enforcement officers have disabled the servers hosting the Newstar Websites.

The Newstar Enterprise maintained a membership list for subscribers and customers of the Newstar Websites, who originated from 101 nations across the world. Images in the websites’ galleries were freely available to the public to preview, but greater access and more content required purchasing a subscription.

The sale of purported “child modeling” content on the Newstar Websites generated more than $9.4 million.

To process, receive and distribute this money, Newstar Enterprise members fraudulently opened merchant and bank accounts in the United States and laundered proceeds using a bogus jewelry company.

To date, four members of the Newstar Enterprise have been charged in connection with the Newstar Websites.

Wilowski-Mevorah and Bjorkman both pleaded guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering and are awaiting sentencing. They could receive up to 20 years in prison.