By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

March 27, 2001

OAKLAND — A Walnut Creek man accused of importing hundreds of Russian-made videotapes and computer discs depicting boys having sex pleaded not guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to child pornography charges.

Seth Bekenstein’s appearance before federal Magistrate Judge Wayne D. Brazil came the same day United States Customs officials heralded the arrest of four more Americans suspected of ordering tapes through Moscow-based Blue Orchid.

Arrested Jan. 4, Bekenstein, 39, was one of the first customers — and “the best customer” — of the Russian pornographers to be taken into custody, according to Customs officials and court documents.

Federal prosecutors and investigators also have characterized Bekenstein as a “major distributor” of the illegal materials, using Internet email accounts to sell tapes and CD-ROMs, records showed.

He and his attorney, Matti Fromson, declined to comment Monday as they left the courtroom in Oakland after a brief arraignment officially charging him with three counts of receiving and one count of possessing child pornography.

Bekenstein, who is free on $500,000 bond, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and will next appear before Judge D. Lowell Jensen April 13.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Miles Ehrlich also declined to comment on the case.

The worldwide sting that later became known as Operation Blue Orchid began last May after Moscow police notified the Customs Attache there of a Web site displaying child porn.

An investigation led police to arrest Vevolod Solntsev-Elbe, who admitted during police interviews that the 13-year-old boy he was apprehended with was brought to the city for sex, Customs officials said Monday.

A search of the man’s apartment turned up a contact list naming about 50 American, European and other international customers and included mailing labels as well as money transfer receipts in Bekenstein’s name, records showed.

Buyers would wire money to the Russian distributors, who would mail the videotapes to them through the U.S. Postal Service or private shipping companies, offials said. The tapes, which cost from $200 to $300 each, were sometimes concealed in boxes labeled as National Geographic documentaries.

Armed with the customer information, authorities also tracked down suspects in Indiana and Massachusettes, officials said Monday. Customs agents arrested Glenn Martikean of Portage, Ind. Jan. 31 and Derek Lochiatto of Malden, Mass., who appeared Monday in federal court in that state.

Martikean, who was indicted Friday, is suspected of receiving and possessiing child pornography and also faces child molestation charges surrounding what authorities believe was sexual contact he had with children between 10 and 14 years old.

The identity of a fourth suspect was not released.

Federal authorities continue to focus their investigation on suspects who might have bought re-recorded videos and computer images from Bekenstein, federal court documents show.

A January search of Bekenstein’s Treat Boulevard apartment turned up more than 600 computer discs, 293 videotapes, hundreds of computer movies and about 105,000 still images containing illegal sexual materials, according to a returned search warrant.

Five suspects have been arrested in Russia, including Victor Razumov, who also is know as the “Punisher.” Razumov was arrested March 2 on charges accusing him of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy while making two pornographic movies that were sold on the Blue Orchid site.

Elbe’s confession also led police to arrest suspected Blue Orchid kingpin Sergey Garbko in December. He told an officials Bekenstein was the "most frequent purchaser of child pornography" and had bought every videotape and CD-ROM title they offered through the Internet, records showed.

Aleksei Tormazov, who also appeared in some videos, was arrested March 15. Video cameraman Yuri Arkhipov was arrested Feb. 27 and later killed himself, customs officials said.

Victims of the abuse often were homeless young boys who traveled to Moscow from the town of Novokuybishevsk, about 560 miles from the former Cold War capital, officials said. Some were repeatedly used in films.

Authorities in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and other European countries also are helping in the investigation.

“The United States Customs Service is working aggresively with law enforcement officials both here and abroad in making a worldwide assault on the producers, distributors and purchasers of child pornography sold over the Internet,” Acting U.S. Customs Commissioner Charles Winwood said in a statement. “The global nature of the Internet demands a global response by law enforcement to protect innocent children, regardless of their nationalities.”