A federal grand jury has indicted three men on obscenity charges for allegedly selling rape and sexual torture videos over the Internet. Federal authorities are seeking the extradition of two of the men from Canada, including Tom Gartman, a notorious spammer, who is also known as Clarence Thomas Gartman.
Brent Alan McDowell, 35, is also currently residing in Canada. McDowell and Gartman are both charged with one count of conpsiracy to distribute obscene material, two counts of transportation of obscene material and aiding and abetting, and one count of mailing obscene matter.
Lou Anthony Santilena, 30, is also charged with count of conpsiracy to distribute obscene material, and one count of mailing obscene matter. Santilena resides in Henderson, Nevada.
Gartman, 33, is the former business partner of Garry and Tamara Ragsdale, who were convicted on obscenity charges stemming from their partnership with Gartman last October.
Local authorities began investigating the Ragsdales in 1998 after being tipped off by a German who found the couples' Website. Although Gartman and the Ragsdales had stopped working together earlier that year, Gartman's Web properties were discovered during the investigation of the Ragsdales.
Forbiddenvideos.com and Fetish1000.com are a few of the domains that Gartman and his accomplices are known to have worked with.
Gartman and McDowell each face 20 years if convicted. Santilena faces ten.
