Second LV man arrested in Internet porn sting

Jace Radke

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

A second Las Vegas resident has been arrested in connection with a child pornography investigation that centers around a Belarus-based website called Regpay that charged people's credit cards for access to more than 50 child pornography websites worldwide.

Mark Raffensparger, 47, is charged with receipt and possession of child pornography according to a federal indictment handed down Wednesday.

Raffensparger was arrested Wednesday night, said Stephen Usiak, resident agent-in-charge for the Las Vegas office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Las Vegas church camp counselor Harold Shaw, 59, was arrested in February by Metro Police after evidence was discovered linking him to Regpay as part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation known as Operation Predator.

Shaw was charged in Clark County District Court with three counts of sexual assault with a minor under 14, one count of lewdness and two counts of use of a minor in producing child pornography.

Sources said that the search warrant served recently on former casino executive Kenny Wynn, the brother of casino of casino magnate Steve Wynn, was also part of the operation's investigation into child pornography.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized a computer from Kenny Wynn and are analyzing what was on it, according to sources.

No charges have been filed against Wynn.

Natalie Collins, spokeswoman U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, said that the indictment against Raffensparger stems from a joint investigation conducted by the Justice Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and other federal agencies.

The indictment seeks forfeiture of computer images depicting a minor engaging in sex, a computer, 76 compact discs, 36 floppy discs and one videotape all seized from Raffensparger's home during the serving of a search warrant on Febr. 2.

If convicted Raffensparger could face up to 20 years for the receipt of child pornography charge, and 10 years on the possession charge.

Raffensparger and Shaw are the only two Nevadans to be charged in connection with Regpay and Operation Predator. In Nevada, 46 illegal immigrants have also been arrested in connection with Predator, which has resulted in more than 2,000 arrests nationwide since it began in July, officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created as part of the government's reorganization to fight terrorism and combines the investigative abilities of U.S. Customs with the information gathering abilities of Immigration and Naturalization.

Operation Predator was designed to protect young people from child prostitution, trafficking, pornography and sexual tourism, by targeting fugitive criminal aliens with sex offense histories. The investigation has also led federal agents to U.S. citizens through client lists for sites like Regpay, federal officials said.

In Las Vegas, federal officials said more than a dozen search warrants have been served in connection with Operation Predator.

Sources said agents obtained the federal search warrant served on Kenny Wynn after finding his name on a website, so agents are searching his computer for images of child pornography.

The search warrant has been sealed.

Collins said that locally the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a group that includes Metro Police, the FBI, federal prosecutors and other law enforcement representatives and agencies, "actively pursues and investigates cases involving the exploitation of children and minors over the Internet."

From 2002 through 2003, 52 defendants were charged in the District of Nevada with crimes ranging from receipt and possession of child pornography, interstate travel with intent to have sex with a juvenile, and using a computer to entice a juvenile into having sex.

Raffensparger is the fourth defendant charged in connection with such crimes in Nevada this year.

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