The owner of a local youth hostel went before a federal judge on Friday, accused of traveling overseas to have sex with a minor.
The judge ruled to keep 43-year-old Jason Jayavarman in custody for the time being. He was arrested Wednesday and he waived his rights.
Jayavarman owns "Jason's International Youth Hostel" in Midtown, and workers were stunned to hear about the allegations made against their boss.
"I was shocked actually, he does not seem like that kind of person at all," Cree Biggs, manager at Jason's International Youth Hostel, said.
According to Biggs, Jayavarman occasionally spoke about growing up in Cambodia. They've known each other for the past two years, and Biggs says Jason never showed any signs of questionable behavior.
"He's a fairly private person," Biggs said. "We'd have conversations every now and then about guests that were staying here or things maybe going on in the news or things we needed for the hostel, but he pretty much keeps to himself."
Biggs also said he and Jayavarman had conversations about past girlfriends, but they were all adults.
"He has talked in the past about girlfriends he's had and some people that used to stay here and seen him with these girlfriends and they're adults," Biggs said.
Jayavarman is accused of attempting to travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and the production and transportation of visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
According to the criminal complaint document, during a series of conversations with an FBI undercover agent, Jayavarman discussed his previous trips to Cambodia for the purpose of having sex with children. Jayavarman told the agent that he videotaped and took still images of a child engaged in sexual acts with him at least once during a trip to Cambodia before bringing the video back to Anchorage. He also told the undercover agent he has made "films" in the United States.
The document also says Jayavarman explained to the agent the girls he abuses in Cambodia are from Vietnam.
While the FBI couldn't talk specifically about the case since it is an open investigation, Special Agent Deirdre Fike did say it looks at child exploitation cases seriously.
"The FBI does prioritize violence against children and part of the FBI's initiative against the domestic exploitation of children includes operations, national initiatives such as one that just occurred last month called Operation Cross Country where we really look at targeting any individuals that are involved in the trafficking and exploitation of children," Fike said.
Jayavarman's detention hearing will take place Aug. 21 and a preliminary hearing has been set for Aug. 23.
The FBI encourages anyone who may know of someone involved in child exploitation to call local law enforcement.