US Customs - Thailand Profiling

Feds bust Wharton prof on child-porn charges
By WILL BUNCH

A top professor who had been allowed to continue teaching at the Wharton School despite a string of lurid 1990s sex allegations was busted as he returned from Brazil this weekend by immigration officers who found child porn on his laptop.

L. Scott Ward, 63, a professor emeritus at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania business school, was nabbed after the federal immigration cops said they had found DVDs of Ward engaged in oral sex and other illicit acts with young boys.

In a ripped-from-the-headlines twist, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent said that Ward, who apparently lives in University City, had been pulled from the customs line at Dulles Airport in Dulles, Va., because of his frequent trips to Thailand. That nation's sex industry has become more notorious in recent days because of the high-profile arrest of John Mark Karr, now no longer facing charges in the JonBenet Ramsey case.

Ward, a nationally known marketing expert, faced a string of sex allegations during the 1990s that ended in 1999 with Ward receiving five years' probation for soliciting sex from an undercover state trooper who posed as a 15-year-old boy.

The sentence came after Ward entered what is known as an Alford plea, similar to pleading "no contest," with no admission of guilt. Bolstered by neighbors and colleagues who testified about his character, Ward continued to maintain he was innocent and remained on the faculty at Wharton.

News of these new charges is certain to generate controversy on the Ivy League campus. Last night, Wharton spokesman Peter Winicov said the school had no official comment and he doubted "there will be any tonight... if ever."

Ward is still in federal custody in Virginia, charged with violating federal child-pornography laws. Federal authorities said he was slated to face a detention hearing this morning in Alexandria.

Ward, an international expert in marketing high-tech products, says on his resume that he also has continued to serve as a consultant to some big-name corporations, including IBM and Microsoft. A former associate professor at Harvard Business School, Ward also lists experience as a visiting professor at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

But it appears that one recent project - listed as "pro-bono consulting to micro-businesses in Brazil" on his resume - is tied to his newest run-in with the authorities.

ICE special agent Byron Bragg said in an affidavit that Ward arrived at Dulles, outside Washington, D.C., on a United Airlines flight from Brazil on Sunday morning and was pulled from a line at 7:25 a.m. because a Customs officer noted what Bragg called "excessive trips to Thailand... a well-known destination for people having sex with minors."

Upon further screening, a second officer found pictures of Ward posing on a beach with children, whom the professor claimed belonged to a girlfriend. When the officer found the laptop computer, Bragg said, "Ward hesitated and was reluctant to open his laptop but did so."

The second Customs officer found a video of children who appeared to be as young as age 8 engaging in sexual activity. More officers were called in and found mini-DVDs and a video recorder in Ward's luggage.

"At least 3 of the DVDs contained video of male minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct including oral sex, masturbation and the lascivious exhibition of the genitals," according to Bragg's affidavit. "The children in the video appear to be between 14 to 16 years old. Ward himself appears in all three of the mini DVD's and is engaging in sexual contact, including fellatio with the minors."

Ward was subsequently arrested, and his computer, video camera and DVDs were seized, as well as $3,126 in cash.

Ward's legal troubles started in 1993 with the state-police sting, which had been organized by detectives because of allegations that Ward - who lived in a 16-room mansion in Ardmore at the time - was paying to procure young boys from broken homes in Kensington.

That case was tried twice, before Ward agreed to probation and a $2,500 fine. While that case dragged on, a jury acquitted Ward in 1995 of allegations that he'd had oral sex with a 13-year-old Kensington street hustler in exchange for money, clothes and medical care.


www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15386214.htm

Similar Threads:

• Massage saloon rules/customs ?
• US Customs in Seattle
• Special Thailand Project - Teaching in Thailand 30,000 baht
• Dirty Old Men at U.S. Customs

[bucknaway]

On my coming trip, I expect to be stopped by customs. They always stop me. I don't know if they think I am a smuggler, terrorist or just want to look at my dirty clothes.

I think on this trip back, I will take out my contact lenses and wear my glasses.... But then they will probably profile black American Nerds LOL

[Dboy]

I've never been bothered so far coming back (white male). Regarding the original post, its a bad/dumb/stupid idea to keep pervy pictures on your laptop. If you carry a laptop through customs , prepare for it to be examined and your hard-drive to be imaged (copied). I've noticed this happening more lately. There are easy ways to avoid getting busted for this! I'd hate for anyone here to get caught doing that crap, so if you must get data out, set up a linux machine at home running SSH (encrypted connection, like a simple VPN) and then transfer files using an internet cafe or an open wireless network...not that I approve of such things. For one step further, you can also encrypt your home machine in case it is accessed before you arrive home. For another step in paranoia you can send this data out using the Tor network so the final destination for the data (your "home" machine) will be untracable. A simpler solution would be to email the data to yourself, but that will only work until your mailbox is full, and the data would be left sitting on a mailserver somewhere unencrypted. Or put the encrypted data on a USB thumbdrive and ship it out. One other, more esoteric option is to use what's know as "alternate data streams" in the NTFS filesystem (windows) to hide the data on the drive. If you don't understand these suggestions then you are too dumb to be doing this sort of thing and will likely get caught eventually.

Dboy

[GWMinUS]

Not that I would do this myself...
But you suggestions are worthwhile.

I thought you could encrypt your files and then put them on a CD. Is this reasonble??
The ICE Guys would have to cut my tongue out to get the password!!!
I no longer carry my laptop. Exceeds my Baggage Limit on AirAsia.
So I carry a small 20-MB pocket drive. It can be password protected, but it does not do encryption.

Think emailing files to myself or using FTP would take too long.
Any other ideas.

Cheers

[Dboy]

Yes, you could burn the encrypted data to a CD, make a label that looks innocuous, with jewelcase, etc. The problem is that once a suspicion is raised then its all over. There is case law concerning obtaining crypto keys, though I don't know the current status of that debate.

You can create an encrypted file system on a thumb drive. This option: http://www.truecrypt.org/ (free) includes the ability to use AES-256 to crypt.

Another option is creating a hidden file system on an iPod (dont have one, never tried this). You'd make 2 partitions, one would be for normal storage, loaded up with mp3's or video to avoid suspicion, and the other partition would contain the sensitive data. There are lots of electronic devices out there that could be modified this way...cellphones, digital cameras.

Keep in mind that whatever method you use, an examination of a filesystem can show statistically if a data region is encrypted or not. So claiming that the data region is just "garbage" won't work. Encrypted data has too much randomness.


Dboy

On my coming trip, I expect to be stopped by customs. They always stop me. I don't know if they think I am a smuggler, terrorist or just want to look at my dirty clothes.

Try Whitening cream. If that deos not work, contact and ask Michael Jackson where he had his skin turned white.

Yes, you could burn the encrypted data to a CD, make a label that looks innocuous, with jewelcase, etc. The problem is that once a suspicion is raised then its all over. There is case law concerning obtaining crypto keys, though I don't know the current status of that debate.

Dboy

As to the best of my knowledge pornography providing it does not contain images of children (under 18 years) is permitted in most countries, it begs the question just what have you guys got to hide?

I know many a Thai lad in his twenties that to an overly zealous customs official may look awfully young and trigger a more extensive search of your luggage and electronics. No issues if one is not carrying sexually suggestive pictures, but who want or needs the delay and hassle factor?

I know many a Thai lad in his twenties that to an overly zealous customs official may look awfully young and trigger a more extensive search of your luggage and electronics. No issues if one is not carrying sexually suggestive pictures, but who want or needs the delay and hassle factor?

That is correct. Under US law, a lewd picture that even LOOKS like the subject MIGHT be underage is just as illegal as if there is proof of the subject being of age.

[Dboy]

Yes, you could burn the encrypted data to a CD, make a label that looks innocuous, with jewelcase, etc. The problem is that once a suspicion is raised then its all over. There is case law concerning obtaining crypto keys, though I don't know the current status of that debate.

Dboy

As to the best of my knowledge pornography providing it does not contain images of children (under 18 years) is permitted in most countries, it begs the question just what have you guys got to hide?

1) this is not necessarily about p0rn

2) personal privacy (crazy concept, I know)

3) these types of skills are things that the coming generations will find crucial to survival. Every seen "Johnny Mnemonic"? :-) We're living in it.


DBoy