Adams County Man Faces Federal Charges Of Promoting Prostitution Online
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - An Adams County man accused of using his website to promote prostitution has been taken into federal custody.
Two years ago FBI agents broke up a massage parlor in a Golden strip mall that neighbors suspected was essentially a brothel. Ads for the business, Happy Feet, displayed photos of Asian women and contained suggestive messages.
Authorities say the man making those ads was David Warmack.
Warmack ran the website sowet.com, according to the Department of Justice.
Warmack allegedly promoted Happy Feet and other massage parlors on the site. A message board on the site reviewed the prostitutes, there was advertising, and the parlors were shown how to evade law enforcement. The parlors allegedly paid Warmack monthly with cash and sex.
Investigators targeted six major advertisers on the site.
Sowet.com operated until last July but then -- presumably because he was feeling pressure from federal investigators -- Warmack launched a new website called 5280spas.com.
RELATED: Authorities Cracking Down On Prostitution, Human Trafficking In Colorado | FBI: Customers Offered More Than Massages At Happy Feet
On Facebook he posted a picture directing users to his new site where he essentially ran the same operation. The 5280spas site used the advertising banner Mile High Entertainment ... The Power of Pleasure. A user on the site mentioned receiving a "light finish" at one spa, and Warmack's picture appears again in reviews of women at the spas.
Investigators haven't said if they are investigating the new site.
Warmack now faces 20 federal counts of promoting prostitution. Each of those charges carries a possible five year sentence and a $250,000 fine.
