Marc Collins-Rector

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Marc John Collins-Rector (Template:Ne; born October 16, 1959) is an American-born businessman and convicted sex offender, who founded Digital Entertainment Network, an online streaming video broadcaster and dot-com failure. In 2004, he was convicted of child sexual abuse which was highlighted in the 2014 documentary An Open Secret.

Early life

Collins-Rector was born Mark John Rector. He changed his name to Marc Collins-Rector in 1998.[1][2]

Business career

In the early 1980s, Rector founded Telequest, a Florida-based telecommunications company. In 1984, he founded World TravelNet, a company which electronically coordinated cruises and tours; its affiliate, World ComNet, was floated on the Vancouver Stock Exchange in 1987. Its valuation briefly peaked at $100 million before increasing competition led to bankruptcy.[1] Rector and business partner Chad Shackley founded Concentric Network, an early ISP, in 1991.[3][4][5]

DEN founding

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Rector and Shackley sold Concentric in 1995 and, using money raised from the sale, as well as close to $100Script error: No such module "String".million of investor and venture capital, formed an early Internet video media content delivery company, Digital Entertainment Network. Collins-Rector was the co-founder and chairman of DEN, which exhausted its funding following a failed IPO bid and collapsed amidst allegations of Collins-Rector having sexually abused boys, coercing them with drugs and guns.[6]

Child enticement conviction

File:Brock Pierce at the SingularityU The Netherlands Summit 2016 (29033319263) (cropped) (cropped).jpg
Brock Pierce

Collins-Rector and his business partners, Chad Shackley and Brock Pierce, operated DEN out of a Los Angeles mansion. There, they held parties attended by Hollywood's gay A-list.[2] At those parties, Collins-Rector and others were alleged to have engaged in sexual assaults against teenaged boys.[7]

In August 2000, a New Jersey federal grand jury indicted Collins-Rector on criminal charges that he had transported minors across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them.[8] After his indictment, Collins-Rector fled to Spain together with Shackley and Pierce. Interpol arrested the three men on May 17, 2002, in a house in the Spanish city of Marbella. Shackley and Pierce were released without being criminally charged.[2] Guns, machetes and child pornography were found in the house.[7]

Collins-Rector fought extradition proceedings for two years before returning to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to eight charges of child enticement and registered as a sex offender.[9] He admitted luring five minors across state lines for sexual purposes.[10] He received credit for time that he had served in a Spanish jail and was registered as a sex offender under a weekly supervision.[10]

In 2006, a U.S. District Court granted Collins-Rector special permission to go to the United Kingdom to receive treatment for a brain tumor.[11] He subsequently renounced his US citizenship and has not since returned to the United States.[12] In 2007, he was photographed in London, and in 2008 was living in the Dominican Republic.[13] since 2014Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., he lives in Antwerp and uses the names "Mark Collins" and "Morgan Von Phoenix".[2]

Later career

Collins-Rector was a silent partner in the MMORPG service company IGE, which was founded by ex-DEN VP Pierce - who was chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation.[6][14] IGE initially used an address in the city of Marbella, Spain, where Collins-Rector, Shackley and Pierce shared a villa until it was raided by Interpol in 2002.[15][16]

References

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  1. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ An Open Secret, 2014; Amy Berg.
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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