Private company helps arrest suspected local child predator

PALMETTO, Fla. (WWSB) – Cryptocurrency, blockchain and the dark web are things that can take years to fully understand, and tools that some criminals use to fuel their deviant behavior.

“People who operate in the world of child pornography or CSEM are some of the most technical criminals out there,” says John Kothanek, vice president of global intelligence for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Coinbase just helped the Mantee County Sheriff's Office take an alleged child predator offline.

Jonathan Elwing, 43, is accused of using Coinbase to send about $10 worth of cryptocurrency to a reported source selling explicit images of children.

Every Coinbase account has an address, similar to a serial number on a dollar bill, and whenever a transaction involves an address that has been flagged, an alert is sent to Coinbase, which then contacts law enforcement.

As for websites used to host explicit content, criminal justice professor Tom Holt says criminal activity on common search engines can be monitored fairly easily.

“If they become aware of (child sexual exploitation) content on their platforms, they are legally required to actively remove it and then facilitate investigations wherever possible,” says Holt.

He says this leads many criminals to turn to the dark web, where searches are harder to monitor and websites harder to shut down.

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