CID grabs Empress Leak Website Administrator over 'Sextortion'

The Administrator of a pornography website Empressleak has been arrested for illegally publishing nude pictures and videos of persons without their consent.

The 35-year-old suspect, Anderson Ofosu Hene Amin, popularly known as Mario G, was arrested at his hideout in the Eastern Region by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) of the Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

His arrest follows a report made by a senior high school student on January 6, 2020, to the Cyber Crime Unit that her nude picture was published without her consent.

This was made known at a joint press briefing organized by the Ghana Police Service and the Ministry of Communications.

The Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful in a joint press briefing yesterday, noted that preliminary investigations uncovered information on the website’s registrant information, associated domain names, email addresses, telephone contacts as well as residential address of the administrator, Mr. Anderson Ofosuhene Anim.

She explained that the website in question has been noted for publishing child pornographic content for the past six years.

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“Available evidence including witness statement showed that the website has been demanding money from unsuspecting victims before their content is pulled down.

“Analysis conducted by the National Cyber Crime Centre has revealed that the website has about 600,000 viewers monthly in Ghana, Nigeria, and the United States.

“On January 6, this year, the computer emergency response team of the cybersecurity agency received a report which led to his arrest on July 31,” she indicated.

The sector minister noted that the issue of sexual extortion, now known as ‘sextortion’ has become a common practice in the country.

Giving a breakdown of the cybercrime reports, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said that out of the total reported cases, 296 of them are related to sexual extortion.

The reports, she said, was made to the cybercrime office between January 1 to June 30, 2020.

“The modus operundi of these people is to befriend unsuspecting victims in a conversation, get them to trust them and after convince them to send nude photos,” she said.

She said, “As part of Government’s efforts towards the protection of Ghana’s cyberspace, the National Cyber Security Centre in 2019 launched a Cybercrime/Cybersecurity Incident Reporting Point of Contact (PoC), to provide an effective mechanism for citizens to report suspected and identified cybercrime and cybersecurity incidents.”

She further said that the Communications Ministry has submitted a bill to Parliament

Anderson Ofosu Hene Amin has since been charged with the offense of obscenity, child pornography, extortion of money, and money laundering.

The publication of child pornographic content constitutes a criminal offense and perpetrators are liable currently under section 136 of the electronic transaction Act. 772, which states that a person who intentionally does any of the following acts:

a. Publishes child pornography through a computer

b. Produces or procures child pornography for the purpose of its publication through a computer system

c. Possessing child pornography on a computer system or electronic medium commits an offense