Marc Collins-Rector

Marc John Collins-Rector (born October 16, 1959) is an American businessman and a convicted sex offender, known for founding Digital Entertainment Network, an online streaming video broadcaster and notable dot-com failure, as well as his associations with Hollywood and media figures. His child sexual abuse conviction is highlighted in the 2014 documentary An Open Secret.

Born Mark John Rector, he changed his name to Marc Collins-Rector in 1998.

In the early 1980s Rector founded Telequest, a Florida-based telecommunications company. In 1984, he founded World TravelNet, a company which electronically coordinated cruises and tours; its affiliate, World ComNet, was floated on the Vancouver Stock Exchange in 1987. Its valuation briefly peaked at $100 million before increasing competition led to bankruptcy. Rector later founded an early ISP; Concentric Network, in 1991 along with partner Chad Shackley.

Rector and Shackley sold Concentric in 1995 and, using money raised from the sale, as well as close to $100 million of investor and venture capital, formed an early Internet video media content delivery company, Digital Entertainment Network. Collins-Rector was the co-founder and chairman of DEN, which exhausted its funding following a failed IPO bid and collapsed amidst allegations of Collins-Rector having sexually abused children, coercing them with drugs and guns.

Running DEN out of a Los Angeles mansion, Collins-Rector and his business partners--Chad Shackley (who was also Rector's romantic partner) and Brock Pierce--hosted lavish parties, attended by Hollywood’s gay A-list. It was at those parties Collins-Rector and others allegedly sexually assaulted teenage boys.

In August 2000, a New Jersey federal grand jury indicted Collins-Rector on criminal charges that he had transported minors across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them. After his indictment Collins-Rector fled to Spain together with Shackley and Pierce. Interpol arrested them in May 2002 in a villa in the south Spanish beach city of Marbella. Guns, machetes and child pornography were found in the house.

Collins-Rector fought extradition proceedings for two years before returning to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to eight charges of child enticement and registered as a sex offender. He admitted luring five minors across state lines for sexual purposes. He received credit for time that he had served in a Spanish jail and was registered as a sex offender under a weekly supervision.

In 2006, a U.S. District Court granted Collins-Rector special permission to go to the United Kingdom to receive treatment for a brain tumor. He subsequently renounced his US citizenship and has never returned to the United States. In 2007, he was photographed in London, and in 2008 was living in the Dominican Republic. As of 2014, he lives in a "European port city" and uses the names "Mark Collins" and "Morgan Von Phoenix".

News reports have stated that Collins-Rector was a silent partner in the MMORPG service company IGE, which was founded by ex-DEN VP Brock Pierce - who is now chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation. IGE initially used an address in the city of Marbella, Spain, where Collins-Rector, Shackley and Pierce shared a villa until it was raided by Interpol in 2002.