INQUIRER: The Old City headquarters of a lucrative web of companies providing Internet sex videos and telephone sex chat was raided Wednesday by federal and state authorities. Law-enforcement agents descended on the offices of National A-1 Advertising and National A-1 Internet at 106 S. Seventh St. in the morning and did not leave till after 8 p.m. A U-Haul van was backed up to the entrance of the building and box after box of evidence was handed from agent to agent into the van until they reached a box labeled “#81.” Some of the boxes were labeled “operator/chat logs.” Others were labeled to indicate they contained evidence from Hotmovies.com, a subsidiary of National A-1 Internet. A report Wednesday about the raid by AVN.com, an adult entertainment news source, described Hotmovies.com as “a leading adult industry provider VOD provider.” The focus of the investigation was unclear. MORE
CBS PHILADELPHIA: Law enforcement officials executed search warrants at a location in Center City Wednesday morning in connection to a prostitution ring investigation. MORE
AVN: AVN called the Philadelphia bureau of the FBI, but the agent in charge, Special Agent J.J. Klaver, would not reveal the reason for the raid, but reiterated previous reports that no one was charged or arrested in connection with the raid. He also said that no news would be forthcoming from the FBI about the raid. “Any information about the raid will only come from the U.S. Attorney’s office, not our office,” said Klaver. “And it will probably not be today, or for quite a while.” AVN called the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia, and spoke with Public Relations officer Patricia Hartman, who said even less than Klaver. “Our office does not confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of investigations,” she said. MORE