Last week Andrew J. Gallo, 44 of Levittown was arrested and charged with five counts of rape, strangulation, and possession with intent to
manufacture or deliver a controlled substance and relate offenses authorities said in the press conference just after Gallo was taken into custody on September 11.
Gallo allegedly met the women through sugardaddymeet.com website (SDM).
The site advertises itself as “a platform for generous men and attractive women looking to form honest relationships.”
SugarDaddyMeet.com did not issue a press release about Gallo’s arrest nor did the website inform its” 8.3 million members” about his arrest in any meaningful way this news outlet could discern. The online dating site was certainly aware something was going on since the Bucks County DA’s office requested an array of documents from the company seeking investigative information about Gallo.
District Attorney Jennifer Schorn, in response to reporters’ questions about the sugardaddymeet.com website, said “they gave us the bare minimum and not specifically what we asked for and it’s not lost on me, these platforms know that they are inviting dangerous things to unfold.” Schorn said some social media platforms do cooperate with law enforcement.
“I would state unequivocally that Sugar Daddy was not one of those platforms.”
After the press conference, this publication called the press and media contact number for the “meet” website, leaving a detailed message seeking comment on several questions.
On Saturday September 14, John Martinuk, Manager of N. American Operations responded to the publication ‘s voicemail, left on 9/11/24, with his own e mail response.
Here is Martinuk’s entire unedited response:
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. I just got your voicemail, and although it is after the article you stated you were going to publish, I still wanted to give you our response.
We deeply sympathize with the victims involved in this case. The safety and well-being of our members is our top priority. We are committed to creating a safe online environment and take these issues very seriously. For 17 years, SugarDaddyMeet has worked hard to create a community for single men and women looking to connect for everything from romance to mentorship. Over that time, we have worked extensively to create an environment that is not only fun and exciting but also safe.
It has come to our attention that one of our members has been allegedly victimized by someone who used to use our site. We are working with authorities to assist them in any way we can. We do not condone violence against anyone. We have reviewed our database to ensure that the accused is no longer active. We are also reviewing our internal security protocols to make sure that SugarDaddyMeet continues to be one of the safest dating platforms available.
We take all allegations of wrongdoing on our site extremely seriously. We have built a reporting feature that makes it easy for any member to report
any bad behavior on the app. Every report is investigated by our team and acted upon based on their findings. In the rare instances that we have been contacted by law enforcement, we do everything we can to assist in their investigation.We are also currently exploring what we can do to enhance our current verification and security process. This includes, but isn’t limited to, running our complete database, as well as any new members who join our site through the National Sex Offenders database. We will also be increasing communication with our members on how to date safely. Thank you.
As previously reported, the website’s postal address is in (Canada) Vaughan, Ontario. Martinuk has a profile on RocketReach.com which says he is currently the Manager of North American operations for Successfulmatch.com which are the same exact descriptors used at the bottom of his email response to this news organizations inquiry. He does not specify what he actually manages in his signed response. This could be a cultural work force related difference and/or formal business language differences/practices between the United States and Canada. There is no mention of SugarDaddyMeet.com either on his RocketReach.com profile. Apparently Successfulmatch.com could very well be the parent company to SDM. LBS spent about two hours recently combing through publicly available online records attempting to disentangle the companies structure. So far that remains a work in progress.
What is intriguing and apparently inconsistent with the spirit of Martinuk’s comments is what is posted on the SDM website as of September 21, 10 days after Gallo was arrested (” SDM does not conduct background checks”). Remember, in his e-mail response, he said, “We are also currently exploring what we can do to enhance our current verification and security process. This includes, but isn’t limited to, running our complete database, as well as any new members who join our site through the National Sex Offenders database. We will also be increasing communication with our members on how to date safely.
LBS took a screenshot early of the disclaimer hours after the Gallo arrest press conference of the websites copyright information and disclaimer (see below)
Credit: Lower Bucks Source Screenshot of SDM website page 9/19/24 4:45 am
On Friday at 4 p.m. Lower Bucks Source took a second screenshot:
Screenshot: SugarDaddyMeet.com website homepage
Again, the site says it does not conduct background checks on the members of the website.
Second point although a good idea in practice, running Gallo’s name through a “National Sex Offenders database,” before he was arrested gets the website nowhere for the cases currently filed against him. It appears to be generalized verbiage in response to LBS question(s) and little else. Which national database is Martinuk referring to; Canada’s or the United States’? Canada does have a National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR), a “confidential database” of convicted sex offenders that is managed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The registry is used to help police investigate and prevent sexual crimes. Canadians do not have public access to the registry, like in the United States, the registry can only be accessed by Canadian law enforcement agencies.
This media organization did ask in the voice mail left on September 11, why didn’t SDM fully cooperate with investigators. Martinuk’s response to this direct question can be found in the second paragraph of his statement. “We are working with authorities to assist them in any way we can. We do not condone violence against anyone.”
DA Schorn said the website cooperated minimally. Since the company resides in Canada, it is not subject to Bucks County authorities and subpoena power is non-existent.
LBS firmly believes and practices our opinion(s) do not belong in stories of any kind. We don’t pretend to or try to be the active conscience of Lower Bucks County. Its obnoxious to do so. We’re going to step outside that self-created boundary for one sentence in this story.
Mr. Martinuk, please keep that bullshit in Canada!
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Bristol Township Police Department strongly believe there are other victims out there and is asking them to please come forward so that law enforcement can help them get justice. If you went on a date with Gallo and feel you were drugged and want that allegation to be investigated, please contact Bristol Township Police Department Detective Emilyann Maialetti at 215-812-3024 or Bucks County Detectives at 215-348-6354. You can also contact Bucks County Detectives at bucksda.org, or the BucksCrimeTips submission email, buckscrimetips@buckscounty.org, or anonymously by clicking here.
Editors Note: Content Manager Joanne Amees contributed to this story
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