Local owner of Mugshots.com faces charges
WEST PALM BEACH — Two South Florida men — one of them a West Palm Beach resident — who own the website Mugshots.com have been arrested and are awaiting extradition to California.
Thomas Keesee, 60, of West Palm Beach was arrested by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents and is being held without bond at the Palm Beach County Jail.
Sahar Sarid, 43, is being held on $1.86 million bail at the Broward County Jail.
Keese and Sarid are facing charges in California of extortion, money laundering and identity theft.
Mugshots.com publishes the mugshots of people who have been jailed, then demands payment to remove the photos from the website.
Two other men — Kishore Bhavnanie and David Usdan — are also facing charges in the case.
According to an arrest warrant issued in California, the men “extracted more than $64,000 in removal fees” from about 175 people in the state and more than $2.4 million from thousands of victims nationwide between 2014 and 2017.
The scheme worked like this: Mugshots.com posts information — including booking information and personal data — from people who have been arrested, then directs victims to a “takedown” website — Unpublisharrest.com — which typically charges $399 to remove the information.
“This pay-for-removal scheme attempts to profit off of someone else’s humiliation,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
According to the arrest warrant, using the “takedown” site allows Mugshots. com to “shield themselves from legal consequences and to use freedom-of-speech theories in justifying the activity.”
The company allegedly avoided scrutiny and hid the identity of its owners by listing its business address in Nevis, West Indies, registering the domain name in Belize and using a website-hosting company in Australia.
The arrest warrant details one case involving Jessie T., who was taken into custody in Sonoma County, just north of San Francisco, in 2013.
Jessie T., whose full name is not identified in the warrant, was not charged, but Mugshots.com refused to take down his arrest information.
When Jessie T. called an 800 number for Unpublisharrest.com, he was told to pay $399. An unidentified man laughed and hung up when Jesse T. said the practice was illegal, according to the warrant.
Court documents show that Keesee appeared Friday morning before Palm Beach County Judge Ted Booras, who denied bond.
Keesee declined to waive extradition and another hearing is set for June 18.
Mugshots.com was running normally as of Friday afternoon.
On its website are a list of “myths” the company said it’s associated with, including the claim that Mugshots. com is running a “scam.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” the company asserts. “Mugshots.com is a legitimate, reputable website that takes responsible publishing to new heights.”
There was no reference on the website to the arrests of Keesee and Sarid.