ICYMI: Rentboy.com's Former CEO Will Spend Six Months Behind Bars

MANHATTAN, NY — The former CEO of a male escort website was sentenced to six months behind bars on Wednesday after he was convicted on a charge of promoting prostitution.

Jeffrey Hurant, the former CEO of Rentboy.com, was sentenced to six months of jail time plus a fine on Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court. Hurant had previously pleaded guilty to one charge of promoting prostitution in his position at the helm of Rentboy.com, but Hurant and his supporters pleaded for leniency in his sentencing, arguing that Rentboy.com had made sex work safer for the many male escorts who used it.

Brooklyn judge Margo Brodie acknowledged Hurant's intentions when she sentenced him on Wednesday. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"I am convinced you started the site for a good purpose," she said, according to the Associated Press, but noted that the crime "can't go unpunished."

Brodie also handed down a $7,500 fine.

A host of supporters joined Hurant's plea for leniency, including Brad Hoylman, the New York state senator from Manhattan.

Hoylman, a Democrat, said the case "harkens back to a dark chapter in our nation’s history when the government used its vast resources to target and threaten LGBT adults by exposing their private consensual sexual activity."

Hurant faced up to five years in prison and $10 million in fines after he pleaded guilty to the charge last year.

Hurant and six of his colleagues were arrested in 2015 during a raid on the company's Union Square headquarters. At the time, federal authorities said Rentboy had raked in more than $10 million in gross periods between 2010 and 2015. The website, which was launched in 1997, allowed for male escorts to advertise companionship for a fee.

Lead image credit: AP Photo / Mary Altaffer.