TAMPA, Fla. -- Two men who headed an international Web site that flagrantly carried ``escort service'' advertising for thousands of prostitutes and their customers were arrested Tuesday at their Florida homes, officials said.
The 2-year-old Web site, bigdoggie.net, promoted dates with porn stars for as much as $17,000 a night and billed itself as the world's top escort Web site. It contained advertising for the United States and six other countries.
Women in Florida and as far away as South Africa promoted their sexual services and rates for customers. About 50,000 people worldwide used the Web site, said detectives from Tampa and Orlando who conducted the joint investigation.
``If you were computer literate and you were a businessman who traveled, you could get a date,'' Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson said. ``It took the streetwalking problem out of it.''
``The wave of the future is to really do prostitution this way,'' assistant statewide prosecutor Christopher Brown said.
The Web site was owned and operated by Tampa resident Charles S. Kelly and Boca Raton resident Steve E. Lipson, officials said.
Kelly, 41, was arrested on 39 counts of racketeering, deriving support from prostitution, promoting prostitution and a variety of other charges. He is being held on $195,000 bail at the Hillsborough County Jail.
Lipson, 39, was arrested on 40 counts. He will be transported to Tampa to face the charges filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court by the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor Luke Lirot, the Tampa attorney who has represented area strip club owners and dancers in variety of legal battles, is representing Kelly and some of those charged in the case. He did not immediately return calls for comment.
Lipson did not immediately return a phone message left at his home.
Authorities froze the two men's bank accounts Tuesday, where up to $30,000 to $80,000 a month was deposited.
Twenty others were arrested on charges ranging from conspiracy to racketeering to prostitution. Detectives said more will be arrested.
Among those facing charges is an Osceola County high school special education teacher who was arrested this week on two counts of misdemeanor prostitution. Lisa D. Darnell, 29, of Kissimmee who worked at Poinciana High School is also being investigated by local school officials, detectives said.
Darnell has an unlisted phone number and she could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Six customers who showed up for appointments with a phony prostitute created and advertised by Hillsborough County detectives were not arrested, but will become key witnesses in the case.
For $99 a year, customers could access the scores of advertisements women placed on the Web site, detectives said, including customer reviews of their services and the women's ``specialties.'' Men, called ``hobbyists,'' were briefed on the etiquette and a glossary of terms for dealing with the escorts.
``Kelly bragged the whole purpose this board was to make it safe for prostitutes, to keep the cops and the creeps away,'' said Lt. George Ellis, head of the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation's vice unit.
The women paid the Web site's operators as little as $129 to be listed and as much as $900 a month for more elaborate advertisements.
``It was pretty flagrant - they were pretty much in your face with what they were all about,'' Cpl. Kirk Bowling said.
Detectives said there was nothing illegal about the discussions, and in order to arrest anyone they had to catch either the escorts or their customers in the act of committing prostitution. That was difficult.
Wary they were attracting law enforcement attention, the women and their customers also discussed on the message boards ways to avoid walking into a law enforcement trap.
The sheriff's office first attempt to infiltrate the board was quickly spotted when it offered no picture of the woman offering her services.
Later, detectives resorted to using a picture of a woman in a bikini with a come-hither message, the advertisement generated 3,000 inquiries in a single day, Bowling said.