Court sentences man to 19 years in prison for ‘teen modeling’ scam
Published Tuesday,
October 21, 2003

SPRINGFIELD (AP) - A Georgia man who authorities said operated bogus teen modeling sites on the Internet was sentenced yesterday to nearly 20 years in prison for producing and transporting child pornography.

Gary Lee Smith, 37, of Jefferson, Ga., was sentenced in federal court to 19 years and seven months in prison without parole. He also was ordered to pay $20,800 in restitution to a 12-year-old girl, U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said.

Smith was found guilty in April of taking sexually explicit photographs of the 12-year-old girl in a Nevada, Mo., hotel room in February 2001. Some of those photos were posted on the Internet and offered for sale. Smith traded one photograph online in exchange for additional sexually suggestive material. Smith operated several Web sites from offices in Chicago and Atlanta, Graves said.

He promised to help young girls launch their modeling careers, Graves said, but his ‘teen modeling’ Web sites were really just a foot in the door to child pornography.


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