ShowStars was a child modeling agency that operated out of Vladivostok, Russia, by an individual known as Vitaly Vilisov. This agency was shut down in August 2007 as the result of an investigation by law enforcement. According to investigators, it's believed that some of the children involved in the agency were being sexually abused by Vilisov:
Child pornographer eludes investigators
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The house on Semenovskaia Street |
Vladivostok’s Frunzensky Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal case against a photographer who made and distributed erotic pictures of under-aged girls, a press statement from the office said Wednesday. Meanwhile the accused man fled the city in an unknown direction.
The 38-year-old photographer, identified only as Vitaly V., is charged with performing lecherous actions with the girls in his studio, a rented apartment on Semyonovskaya Street in downtown Vladivostok, where he was taking photos and videos showing the half-naked models in suggestive and erotic poses.
The man distributed the photos and videos through his personal website on the internet where visitors could place an order for any photo or video. The profit from a single foreign order amounted to between $100 and $300, prosecutors said.
For one photo shoot, the young models, from 12 to 15 years old, received payment of 500 to 1,000 rubles ($19.5 to $39). The man recruited girls through newspaper ads seeking ‘girls aged 7-12 and those not older 18 to work as photo models.’ He also hired young prostitutes on Vladivostok streets to model. For inviting a friend or acquaintance of hers to model, a girl received a bonus of 500 rubles.
According to investigators, the man asked some of his models to provide him with sexual services.
After the photographer’s interrogation, during which he only admitted to making ‘decent’ pictures, the man fled, aggravating the investigation process. The case has been put under special supervision, the statement from the Prosecutor’s Office reported."