SUNRISE, Fla. – About six years ago, a RipoffReport user from Fort Lauderdale warned users about Neil Greenberg, the owner of Independentgirls.com, saying he was taking advantage of vulnerable teenage girls who didn't have a family or had drug problems.
Deputies came across Greenberg earlier this year while searching for a teenage girl who had vanished from a group home Jan. 10 in Broward County. The teenage girl had been using the tablet of another teen at the group home to communicate with him and didn't close the application.
The communication revealed the girl was engaging in prostitution with the 60-year-old man who is now facing 36 counts of production of child pornography and 36 counts of possession of child pornography in Broward, deputies said.
"There is no other way I can make money," the girl wrote in a message to Greenberg, according to the police report.
Greenberg's Fort Lauderdale-based defense attorney, Matthew Glassman, said Friday his client is innocent. His Independentgirls.com site, Glassman said, has nothing to do with underage girls and they are going to prove it in Broward County court.
"I think it's turning into a witch hunt ... they are just trying to make this man look like a monster," Glassman said about Greenberg's case, adding that if detectives "had more people and if they knew who they were, they wouldn't be doing this and all they are trying to do is conjure up more dirt on a guy who has been a productive citizen of Broward County."
During their investigation, detectives learned Greenberg used his site -- also known as IndiBoard, Indi or Indie -- to get payments from both the members who were paying for sex and the advertisers who were engaging in prostitution, according to court documents in the case. Detectives believe one of the girls was as young as 14 or 15 years old.
"This man never, ever solicited someone, never knowingly went after a child under the age of 18," Glassman said.
Deputies said the charges in the case stem from the 36 child porn videos they found Monday, April 15, at his home, 2350 NW 139 Ave., in Sunrise. The videos were in a memory card that was hidden under the gray felt material of a locked safe that he kept in his bedroom closet, according to a police report.
Strangely, it seems Greenberg expected the videos in the memory card to become evidence. They were inside a folder that was labeled for "evidentiary purposes ONLY" and there was also a "Read_this" notepad document saying he didn't "knowingly" acquire or view child porn.
"I have never knowingly had sexual relations with an underaged girl," the message read. "It is not something I am interested in and never have been. I have long maintained that I enjoy the company of young ladies, but 18 years old or older is just fine with me."
Detectives spoke to one of the girls who said she was 16 years old, but told him she was 17. Investigators believe she met with Greenberg for sex about 20 times during a two-year period and Greenberg recorded her at least six times.
In another case, detectives believe a girl met with Greenberg for sex at his home 10 to 15 times and at least two of those meetings were recorded as recently as February. The girl, who is 17 years old, charged $200 to $300 per meeting, police said.
Detective Michael Joo accessed a record of Greenberg's communication on social media. Last year, one of his advertisers, identified in a police report as Jackie Perez, asked him for help finding clients. She also asked if he knew any dentists who could "fix" her cavity in exchange for sex. He didn't help.
"You've got to hang in there. It's not like the old days," he wrote and added that "there's been a lot of changes on the website in the last few months."
When deputies searched Greenberg's home, they also found his weapons cache, which includes four rifles and a dozen handguns. There were also two semi-automatic pistols with silencers. Glassman said there was nothing illegal about his weapons.
"He is not a convicted felon," Glassman said.
The investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Miami Cyber and High Tech Crimes Squad, the BSO Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit and the Sunrise Police Department are asking anyone with information about the case to call Detective Joo at 954-888-5327.