Complaint Review: Mugshots.com - Internet Internet

Michael J Robertson owns Mugshots.com

Michael Robertson owns Mugshots.com

Mike Robertson owns Mugshots.com

Who owns mugshots.com? Michael Robertson owns mugshots.com

Attorneys on Avvo have made the comments below. Would they have made these comments if it was them or their children on Mugshots.com? I don't think so!

"The mugshot is public information. Anyone could have looked it up as soon as the government publicized it. It could have been printed in the paper or broadcast on tv. A radio announcer could have described it."

"Mugshots are public records of the actions of the government. It is lawful everywhere in the U.S., so far as I know, to publish documents and photographs that are public records of the actions of the government. People are apoplectic about the existence of these mugshot sites but they are an unfortunately humiliating byproduct of open government and the First Amendment. "

"When the police book you and take your photo after your arrest, that photo is a governmental document. We live in a democratic country where most governmental documents are not secret and anyone can obtain a copy. "

"Unfortunately, it is public record. There are services where you can pay for removal for a fee. There is not much you can do because it is public record and you were arrested."

"Sorry, but the pictures are public record and they can be posted online.  We have had a half-dozen or more questions asking this very same question. The answer is the same and the answer is that this is totally legal. If you want to
stop this you will have to change the law in your state. Until then, as long as the pictures are public record there is little you can do."

"it appears to be legal. One way to view it is via 1st Amendment protections that would apply to a newspaper or radio station. In our small community, every non-juvenile arrest goes to the 8:00 AM radio and in the newspapes. Some news stories include the mug shot."

"the website is within its rights to post the mugshot"

"MugShots.com and other mug shot display websites base their existence on the rule that mug shots are public, official records, and that a citizen does not have a state law privacy interest in them. Further, under the First Amendment, most official, public records can be obtained with permission, third-party release, or proper request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), if they are not already publicly-available documents to begin with. 

If the official mug shot is part of an arrest record, the mug shot could be considered part of the public domain in some jurisdictions. Even if a mug shot is not officially considered part of an arrest record, it is generally a photographic record in the public domain and the laws of most jurisdictions allow one to request and obtain these types of records. 

Some states recognize a common law right to privacy, and the Appeals Courts are split on whether or not a citizen who is arrested (and of course, presumed innocent until proven guilty) would be entitled to demand that their mug shots be removed from websites if they are later acquitted. 

MugShots.com, in particular, offers a courtesy removal process in certain instances, although they vehemently protect these options as a mere courtesy, and not a legal requirement."

Michael J Robertson owns Mugshots.com

Michael Robertson owns Mugshots.com

Mike Robertson owns Mugshots.com

Who owns mugshots.com? Michael Robertson owns mugshots.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljrobertson

Michael Robertson Linkedin profile: 

Michael Robertson Founder & CEO, Mugshots.com

Miami, Florida (Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area) Information Technology and Services

Current job: Founder & CEO at Mugshots.com / Mugshots.com CEO

July 2011 Present (1 year 4 months)

"Within 18 months we were able to put together a team, buy a domain without a website, and turn it into a world's top 1,000 website destination.

To make contact visit Mugshots.com and contact via the website. For all Unpublishing inquiries contact UnpublishArrest.com or call 800-276-2540."

Michael Robertson's Skills & Expertise

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

OBJECT ORIENTED PERL

MICROSOFT SQL SERVER

SQL EMBEDDED SQL

DATABASES

DATA ANALYSIS

DATABASE DESIGN

DATA MINING

Sahar Sarid converts public records to his use (18 USC 641), criminally infringes name and likeness copyrights (18 USC 2319 and 17 USC 506), stalks (18 USC 2261A), blackmails (18 USC 873) and extorts (18 USC 880) money from people.

Sahar Sarid owns - mugshots.com
Sahar Sarid - Pompano Beach, FL 33062 - (954) 782-9292

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The operation mugshot sites are likely protected by the First Amendment, since the information contained on the site is public records. Mugshot sites will often charge to unpublish material from their site, and they have the right to do so. While this practice upsets those affected, it is again legal since the sites can make decisions as to which mugshots to include, and which to unpublish. Unpublishing is a major issue in the  publishing world and it doesn't start or end with one site or another (Google "Unpublish" or "Unpublishing"). This is simply the cost of living in the Information Age, when public information is readily available.

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

18 USC 1030 - Fraud and related activity in connection with computers
(2) intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains
(C) information from any protected computer;

18 USC 641 - Public money, property or records
Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his use or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or disposes of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the United States or of any department or agency thereof, or any property made or being made under contract for the United States or any department or agency thereof;

Whoever receives, conceals, or retains the same with intent to convert it to his use or gain, knowing it to have been embezzled, stolen, purloined or converted

Craig Wiggen: Craig Wiggen's purloined "4 million" law enforcement database records "that were once hidden behind police CGI search scripts." Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) charges "$24.00 per record" to search FDLE's Computerized Criminal History (CCH), $96,000,000+.
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Craig Wiggen: "Wiggen said he wrote screen-scraping software to perform searches on 37 of the counties, crawling to get arrests stretching back years, and continuously polling the sites."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Craig Wiggen: "Siphons booking photos out of county-sheriff databases throughout the Sunshine State."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Howard Helfant on Craig Wiggen: "Florida.Arrests.org is continually updating its mugshot database on a daily basis by automatically gathering information from official law enforcement file systems throughout the state of Florida."
SOURCE Howard S. Helfant - internetreputation.com

Tyronne Jacques on Florida Sheriff's: "Tyronne Jacques, owner of RemoveSlander.com said sheriff's departments could put a stop to these businesses if they banned people from republishing the information for a profit."
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.

18 USC 2319 - Criminal infringement of a copyright
17 USC 506 - Criminal Offenses: "For purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain."

Craig Wiggen: "The bulk of florida.arrests.orgs income comes from advertising, he said."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Craig Wiggen: "From his point of view, hes getting free content, then monetizing it with Google AdSense."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Craig Wiggen: "Florida.arrests.org makes a profit from online advertising."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Tyronne Jacques on Craig Wiggen: Every time someone clicks on your page to view your mug shots, sites like Florida Arrests earns a little more cash from Google."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Kelly Joe Ellis and Craig Wiggen: "The site RemoveArrest.com often enjoys advertising right on Wiggens site through Googles algorithm-driven AdSense program."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

abc News: Thousands of people are being criminalized by mug-shot websites that collect ad revenue at their expense!
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.


18 USC 873 - Blackmail
Whoever, under a threat of informing, or as a consideration for not informing, against any violation of any law of the United States, demands or receives any money or other valuable thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Craig Wiggen: "Wired.com asked Wiggen if his site includes his own mug shot from his 2005 card-skimming arrest. Of course I'm not going to have my mug on my site, he said."

Sahar Sarid: Sahar Sarids mugshot from his arrest is noticeably absent from his website mugshots.com.
Security Watch. "MFrom Card Skimming to Mug Scraping" American Banker April 2012.

Howard Helfant: "Although removing a mugshot from the internet can help in repairing an online reputation, many times a mugshot is posted on multiple sites online. "
SOURCE Howard S. Helfant - internetreputation.com

Tyronne Jacques: "According to Jacques, some of these sites use profiling to target those who may be most willing to pay up to remove their mug shots online."
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.

Tyronne Jacques: "There's a perception that white, blonde women will pay to remove their pictures, he said, Especially with a DUI, they make it on the sites all the time."
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.

Tyronne Jacques: "Laura paid $50 to Fortmyermugshots.com to have her photo removed, and $399 to two companies each for the service to have her information removed from other mug shot sites, one of which was RemoveSlander.com."
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.

Craig Wiggen: "Three websites displayed her mug shot, including Florida.arrests.org."
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.

Tyronne Jacques: "Jacques said repeat criminal offenders or those on probation do not appear to be as targeted."
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.


18 USC 880 - Receiving the proceeds of extortion
A person who receives, possesses, conceals, or disposes of any money or other property which was obtained from the commission of any offense under this chapter that is punishable by imprisonment for more than 1 year, knowing the same to have been unlawfully obtained, shall be imprisoned not more than 3 years, fined under this title, or both.

Craig Robert Wiggen: " The real trade secret is that Wiggen wants a small piece of the action. "
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Craig Wiggen on Tyronne Jacques: "Wiggen said he has provided RemoveSlander an URL for an automated takedown script on his site. RemoveSlander presses a button and makes a payment, and my website handles it automatically, Wiggen said."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Tyronne Jacques on Craig Wiggen: For $399, RemoveSlander promises to take that fight to florida.arrests.org, and force Wiggen to remove a mug shot."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Tyronne Jacques on Craig Wiggen: "Tyronne Jacques said the removal fee pays for his crack legal team to deal with florida.arrests.org, and to force Google to get the URL removed from Googles search index."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Craig Wiggen: "Wiggens code performs through Googles Webmaster tools."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

Craig Wiggen: "Make money by charging those with featured mug shots to remove their information."
Susanna, Kim "Businesses Charge Hundreds To Remove Mug Shots Online." abc NEWS April 2012.

Kelly Joe Ellis: "Joe Ellis, the operator of RemoveArrest.com, said his method is proprietary, but that hes used it to get hundreds of mugs removed at $129 each."
Kain, Erik. "Is the Online Mug-Shot Industry Any Different than Blackmail?" Forbes August 2011.

Howard Helfant on Craig Wiggen: "InternetReputation.com has become proficient at Florida.Arrests.org mugshot removal. When asked how fast they are able to remove mugshots from Florida.Arrests.org, InternetReputation.com responded, We have developed a set of techniques that we use to remove mugshots within 24 to 72 hours."
SOURCE Howard S. Helfant - internetreputation.com

Tyronne Jacques: "For $399, Remove Slander will remove a mugshot that is featured on a popular but seemingly unaffiliated site Florida Mug shots. (It costs $699 to remove a mug shot from multiple sites.) The company gets the mug shot taken down by paying part of that fee to the mug shot sites owner."
Ramasastry, Anita. "Mug Shot Mania: The Legal and Policy Issues Surrounding Private Websites Postings of Arrest Photos." Justia April 2012.

Wired: "On the surface, the mug-shot sites and the reputation firms are mortal enemies. But behind the scenes, they have a symbiotic relationship that wrings cash out of the people exposed."
Kravets, David. "Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again." Wired August 2011.

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Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

(((ROR redacted)))

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

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If you are so brave, why don't you want to write comments under your real name? Whom are you afraid of? Are you more scared by the law enforcement agencies or by your own associates from your "business"??

OK - Here is a solution for you: run to the nearest FBI office and surrender to them. If you behave well, you have a good chance to get under the crime witness protection program. 

"OLEKSIYSVIT" IS OLEKSIY SVITELSKIY.

OLEKSIY SVITELSKIY, A COWARD WHO EVIDENTLY WAS INVOLVED IN A HIT AND RUN (SEE ARREST RECORD) FILES FALSE REPORTS ONLINE BECAUSE HE DOESN'T LIKE HIS FACTUAL CRIMINAL RECORD BEING VISIBLE ONLINE. OLEKSIY SVITELSKIY'S CRIMINAL RECORD CAN BE FOUND ON MANY WEBSITES. AVOID OLEKSIY SVITELSKIY (READ: SCUMBAG) AT ALL COSTS!


http://lcso.leonfl.org/jailinfo/inmate_detail.asp?spn=167557


06/12/2004
TRAFFIC OFFENSE DUI ALCOHOL OR DRUGS 1ST OFF
Statute: 316.193 2A06/13/2004
LEON COUNTY SHERIFF TALLAHASSEE


06/12/2004
HIT AND RUN LEAVE SCENE OF CRASH INVOLVE DAMAGE TO PROP
Statute: 316.061 106/13/2004
LEON COUNTY SHERIFF TALLAHASSEE

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This is similar to that with drugs and prostitution. Some group of not very smart fellows might believe that they can make money this way and live quiet life afterwards. But there is always a more influential group of gangsters that notices them as soon as they start gaining profit, and enforces them to "share" the bigger part of money. This chain continues until the money reach the best organised and the most influential group of criminals - like the group related to the international terrorism.

Mugshots.com is an LLC registered in the state of Deleware and has a registered agent to recieve service of process:
https://delecorp.delaware.gov/tin/controller
This is not exortion in a court of law but they are still liable under state civil laws like "use of personal likeness for commercial gain" or "economic damage  by use of personal likeness. The IRS would probably be interested also. They make thier money by "skiming" new information available under freedom of information laws and generating webtraffic to get money from google for advertising on thier site. They may also be persued for unautherized practice of law since the "venders" offer expungment service for like $3000. The relationship between venders and lawyer may be unautherized "feeder agreements" under bar ethics rules so you might even be able to go after the lawyers who do business with these people trying ever so hard to hide the money trail and identity of the man behind the curtain,
NOTE: The "approved venders" from the website can be sued as well (and should be)but also operate in anonymity be not disclosing any company information other than the name of the website. The transactions through paypal are somewhat anonynous at first but you should be able to subpoena the bank and routing information.
There is an attorney in SW Florida who claims represents the owner of the website in some capacity...hi Marc ; )~  : Marc Gary Epstein. Here is his profile from the florida bar website:
http://www.floridabar.org/names.nsf/0/C6C4B9EE28A58C6285256A830073C611?OpenDocument
The domain name is registered to a fake address with a dedicated number that is answered by a woman that claims to sell insurance. Follow up calls will show this is just a ruse.
Prior to reorganizing as Mugshots.com, LLC in Deleware, The website Mugshots.com appears to have been owned owned and operated by Moniker Privacy Services LLC, located 20 SW 27th Avenue, Ste 201, Pompano Beach, Florida 33069.  Phone number 954-984-8444.    Email:  [email protected] (This is according to other internet reports)
The manager of Moniker was listed as:  Domain Systems, Inc., which now appears to be desolved or inactive and they may also do business as SolutionsHome.com, Inc, and HitDomain.com, Inc. (Yes, moniker was sued for displaying underage porn...here are the court documents:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/04/bieyanka_moore_moniker_privacy_services.php
Hope this helps, go get em. And seriously, the operators of the site probably posted this question themselves. And FYI, they create bogus accounts to post misleading information on the internet. They found a clever way of making money but completely disregard hurting people and try to hide themselves from liability.Public information ceases to be protected when they harm other and use that information for comercial gain.