Three of the four owners of the Mugshots.com website have been arrested on charges of extortion, filed by the state of California.

The four —Sahar Sarid, Kishore Vidya Bhavnanie, Thomas Keesee, and David Usdan— stand accused of collecting mugshot photos from the websites of police and sheriffs' department websites across the US.

Investigators say the four have been listing these mugshot photos on the Mugshots.com website for years, along with summaries of the charges for each person portrayed in the mugshot.

Mugshots.com owners accused of asking for removal fees

Their crime, according to a press release by the Office of the Attorney General of the State of California, is of asking money to have these images delisted.

Investigators discovered that persons calling to have images removed were often redirected to the Unpublisharrest.com website, where users would be instructed to pay a fee to have the mugshot removed.

The Mugshots.com website was indiscriminate in listing mugshot photos, investigators found, often showing mugshots for arrests for which charges were dismissed, or for people arrested due to mistaken identity or law enforcement error.

Wrongfully accused users had a hard time finding jobs

Since the information remained on the Internet, people who had their photo listed on the site had a hard time getting jobs, were denied housing, or lost business opportunities.

For the past years, several users have tried to sue the website to have their listing removed, but failed. Several users reported the extortion attempt to authorities.

"This pay-for-removal scheme attempts to profit off of someone else's humiliation," said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

"Those who can't afford to pay into this scheme to have their information removed pay the price when they look for a job, housing, or try to build relationships with others. This is exploitation, plain and simple."

Owners allegedly made over $2 million from removal fees

Becerra said his investigation into the matter found that the four Mugshots.com owners extracted payments of over $64,000 from 175 Californians, but he believes the accused might have earned over $2 million as removal fees from around 5,703 individuals.

A warrant for their arrest was issued last week. WPTV reports that Florida law enforcement arrested Keesee and Sarid this week in South Florida. WFMZ reports that Bhavnanie was arrested in Pennsylvania, while WFTS reports that Usdan is suspected to be in Connecticut.

Becerra is currently trying to have the arrested suspects extradited to the state of California to face criminal charges.