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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nAccording to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra<\/a>, four people operating the website Mugshots.com<\/a> have been charged with extortion, money laundering, and identity theft for their “pay for removal” business.<\/p>\n The website mines data from police and sheriffs’ department websites to collect individuals’ names, booking photos and charges, then republishes the information online without the individuals’ knowledge or consent. Once subjects request that their booking photos be removed, they are routed to a secondary website called Unpublisharrest.com and charged a “de-publishing” fee to have the content removed. Mugshots.com does not remove criminal record information until a subject pays the fee. This is the case even if the subject had charges dismissed or had been arrested due to mistaken identity or law enforcement error. Those subjects who cannot pay the fee may subsequently be denied housing, employment, or other opportunities because their booking photo is readily available on the internet.<\/p>\n “This pay-for-removal scheme attempts to profit off of someone else’s humiliation,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Those who can’t afford to pay into this scheme to have their information removed pay the price when they look for a job, housing, or try to build relationships with others. This is exploitation, plain and simple.”<\/p>\n The defendants named in the complaint are Sahar Sarid, Kishore Vidya Bhavnanie, Thomas Keesee, and David Usdan. They are the alleged owners and operators of Mugshots.com. Over a three-year period, the defendants extracted more than $64,000 in removal fees from approximately 175 individuals with billing addresses in California. Nationally, the defendants took more than $2 million in removal fees from approximately 5,703 individuals for the same period. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n The AG’s office is attempting to extradite the four who all live outside California. <\/p>\n Arrest warrants were served with the assistance of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, working with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office; the Connecticut State Police, working with the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice – State’s Attorney’s Office; and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"