In California, it is illegal to charge people to remove their mugshots, according to the Sacramento Bee. Nationally, the website owners took more than $2 million in removal fees from approximately 5,703 individuals for the same period, according to the AG's Office. Over a three-year period, the group extracted more than $64,000 in removal fees from approximately 175 individuals with billing addresses in California. "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 pay-for-removal scheme attempts to profit off of someone else's humiliation," said Attorney General Becerra. does not remove criminal record information until a subject pays the fee," the AG’s Office said.Įven if an individual is cleared of all charges, they are forced to pay to have their photo removed. "Once subjects request that their booking photos be removed, they are routed to a secondary website called and charged a "de-publishing" fee to have the content removed. From there, they publish the information online without the persons' consent. The website gathers data from police and sheriffs' department websites, collecting individuals' names, booking photos and charges. Usdan is suspected to be in Connecticut, where his arrest warrant will be served. Sarid and Keesee were arrested in Florida, Bhavnanie was arrested in Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed criminal charges against the alleged owners, Sahar Sarid, Kishore Vidya Bhavnanie, Thomas Keesee, and David Usdan. Three out of four individuals allegedly behind the website were arrested on Wednesday on charges of extortion, money laundering, and identity theft.
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