The owner of a San Francisco-based Web hosting service that operated servers for a Japanese website that advertised the sale of child pornography was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Kimihiko Makino, 40, a Japanese national, pleaded guilty on June 24, 2013, to advertising child pornography, admitting to operating servers in San Francisco for the Japanese site “Daio,” according to federal officials.
The website contains thousands of visual depictions of children, most of them under the age of eight, being sexually abused.
Makino was arrested and indicted in July of 2012 while he was visiting the United States for the purpose of maintaining Daio’s servers, federal officials said.
Japanese officials have indicted and convicted 10 others associated with Daio in a related investigation.
In addition to the prison sentence, Makino was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and to serve five years of supervised release.
Sara Gaiser, Bay City News
