Infoseek exec nabbed in sex scandal

A top executive for one of the Web's biggest sites has been arrested by FBI agents on federal charges for allegedly crossing states lines to solicit sex from a minor.

Patrick Naughton, 34, an executive vice president of Infoseek Corp. and Disney's GO Network, was apprehended late Thursday night in Santa Monica, Calif., after he had arranged to meet a teenage girl who actually turned out to be the creation of an FBI special agent, according to a 17-page criminal complaint and affidavit released by the FBI Saturday.

The affidavit describes, in often lurid detail, about a dozen Internet chats, e-mails and phone conversations over a seven-month period in which Naughton allegedly tried to meet the girl for the purpose of having sex, even after repeatedly being told her age was 13.

Naughton, who resides in Seattle, also engaged in similar chats with a second undercover agent, the FBI filing said.

The document, written by FBI Special Agent Bruce Applin, concludes by saying that Naughton admitted to chatting on numerous occasions with the undercover agents and agreed to a search of his laptop, which contained sexually explicit pictures of children.

Inter-agency operation
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, said Naughton was formally charged with interstate travel with the intention of having sex with a minor. If convicted, Naughton could face up to 15 years in prison under those charges. He was arrested on Friday and released after posting a $100,000 appearance bond. He faces arraignment Oct. 12.

Naughton colleagues and associates -- in and outside of Infoseek -- expressed bewilderment. "He's a very good person, very smart and he loves his wife," said Cheray Unman, the head of a small San Francisco venture capital firm who knows Naughton personally. "I'm horrified -- there's got to be another side."

Disney and Infoseek both issued formal reactions to the incident Monday, with Infoseek saying that it was "shocked and disturbed" and that Naughton was no longer an employee. The company removed Naughton's bio from its Web site late Saturday.

For its part, Disney distanced itself from Naughton, stressing that he was an employee of Infoseek and that he had no direct operational control over any Disney site. (See "Disney: Naughton not our employee") Disney operates the GO Network, an umbrella portal that encompasses ESPN.com, ABCNews.com and Disney Online. Disney Online is the No. 1 most visited site among children and their families on the Internet, according to July statistics from Web market research firm Media Metrix

Disney owns 43 percent of Infoseek (Nasdaq:SEEK). In July, it announced it would acquire the remainder of the five-year-old portal company in a deal that is scheduled to close before year end.

According to SEC documents filed for the fiscal year ending Oct. 3 last year, Naughton was one of Infoseek's most highly compensated executives. In addition to a salary of $183,167, he owned, through options, more than 535,000 shares of the company, an amount worth more than $15 million at the stock's $28.75 closing price Friday.

By mid-afternoon Monday, Infoseek shares were down nearly 4 percent on the day to $27.69.

Laura Bosley, a spokesperson for the FBI's Los Angeles bureau, said the arrest resulted from the coordinated efforts of federal and local law enforcement authorities working together as part of a Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement -- or SAFE -- Team.

FBI Agent Applin's affidavit details more than a dozen encounters. They began on March 8 after Applin logged into an Internet Relay Chat Channel using a female screen name.

"At 3:39 p.m. I received a private message from an individual using the screen name hotseattle. I described myself as a 13-year-old girl from Los Angeles...During the conversation hotseattle said he was interested in meeting in Los Angeles 'sometime' to 'kiss, make out, and play and stuff...'"

Explicit exchanges
Applin also describes far more explicit exchanges as part of the chat, which ended more than four hours later.

Other encounters described by the FBI include:

A May 14 chat in which hotseattle provided the undercover agent with the address of a Forbes magazine Web site in which he'd been cited, a Seattle telephone number and an e-mail address. "Hotseattle said that he had a digital camera that he could use to make 'any' type of picture I liked."

A May 21 chat in which hotseattle said he loved 13-year-old girls. "Hotseattle told me he wanted to get me alone in his hotel room and have me strip naked for him."

An Aug. 5 IRC chat in which hotseattle suggested the undercover agent skip school for a day to be with him.

An Aug. 27 chat in which hotseattle admitted to confusing the undercover agent with another girl - who, it turned out, was using the screen name of a second FBI undercover agent. In this exchange, hotseattle also provided a Web site address containing a picture of male genitalia he claimed were his own, along with a picture of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy at 13 -- transmitted to hotseattle by the second FBI agent.

A Sept. 16 chat in which someone using the name sfmate attempted to set up a meeting with agent. At the time, sfmate said he also used the screen name hotseattle.

The affidavit also describes two phone calls from the LA County deputy to a number provided by hotseattle to a second undercover agent. The number led to an extension for Patrick Naughton of Infoseek.

FBI agents arrested Naughton as he approached the LA County deputy at the Santa Monica pier -- as had been arranged with hotseattle.

Wunderkind
Disney (NYSE:DIS) named Naughton executive vice president responsible for content and technology for GO Networks in January.

He joined Infoseek, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., after having established a bio that positioned him as something of an industry wunderkind.

He joined Sun Microsystems Inc. in 1988, and made his mark as part of the team that created what is now the widespread Java programming language. In 1994, he moved to Starwave, the Seattle-based Web development services company, where he served as president and chief technology officer.

Reuters contributed to this report