http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/nyregion/rentboy-prostitution.html 2016-10-08 01:48:55 C.E.O. of Male-Escort Site Pleads Guilty to Promoting Prostitution Jeffrey Hurant was the chief executive of Rentboy.com, which authorities said was once the nation’s largest online male-escort service. === The chief executive of Rentboy.com, who led what federal authorities said was once the nation’s largest online male-escort service, pleaded guilty on Friday to promoting prostitution. The chief executive, Jeffrey Hurant, 51, had been charged by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn in August 2015, along with six other people connected with the website. Rentboy.com was founded in 1997 and was stocked with escorts’ profiles listing various sexual services and fees. For prices that ranged from $59.95 to $299.95 a month, escorts advertised their “primary interests,” from “vanilla” (“nice and clean”) to “leather” to role playing to other fetishes. Mr. Hurant faced a maximum of five years in prison, although, under his plea deal, he agreed not to appeal a potential sentence if it was no more than two years, and included a fine of $10 million or less. According to a criminal complaint against Mr. Hurant and the others, the site, which had offices on 14th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, had $10 million in sales from 2010 to 2015. Mr. Hurant’s first lawyer, Charles Hochbaum, had initially tried to fight the charges, arguing that his client was simply exercising his First Amendment right to create a marketplace, for escorts who wanted “to accompany people” and “be paid.” Mr. Hurant was also accused of hosting the International Escort Awards, known as the Hookies. At last year’s event, held at a hotel on West 42nd Street, an undercover agent approached Mr. Hurant, who, according to court papers, gave the agent a business card with the email address “ Federal prosecutors dismissed the charges against Mr. Hurant’s employees, including his chief operating officer, a saleswoman and at least one escort. But the arrests prompted The site is now shut down. Mr. Hurant’s current lawyer, Michael Tremonte, did not return phone calls seeking comment.