An Afton, Wyoming, man and his international anti-sex-trafficking organization have helped bring down a mixed martial arts fighter accused of sexually abusing women and girls in numerous countries, the organization reports.
Jaymes Schulte, 38, was arrested in Arizona last week, according to a statement by Libertas International, a global human rights organization that advocates for victims of sex trafficking and abuse.
Libertas International founder and president Tyler Schwab, of Afton, Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that he can’t stomach the idea of powerful men abusing vulnerable girls.
Schwab said his organization is supporting 13 victims Schulte is accused of abusing in Colombia, and helped connect law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Embassy and the Colombian National Police with information leading to Schulte’s arrest.
“He was everywhere,” said Schwab of Schulte’s reach in targeting women and girls around the globe.
Uploaded To Porn Sites
Internet reports started surfacing in 2018, alleging Schulte had arranged one-night stands in Taiwan and filmed women without their consent then uploaded his videos to pornography sites for money.
Schulte has traveled all over the world since then, Schwab said.
“Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand – he posted the abuses on all these different porn sites. You notice where he’s traveled just based on what he posts,” said Schwab.
The more clicks, the more money Schulte would get, Schwab added.
The youngest victim Libertas is aware of was 13 years old, he said.
Schulte is a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who was active from 2012 at least through 2017.
A Hiltonian.com opinion piece with Schulte’s byline on it says the man bounced from fighting to selling drugs to renting apartments for Asian girls whom he’d also sleep with.
“(One) day I was showing all my homemade videos to a friend & he told me this is gold, you need to make a website,” reads the op-ed. “I’ve been living the dream ever since!”
Bullied At School
Though the reports surfaced in 2018, Libertas didn’t hear direct testimony about Schulte’s alleged actions until last year, when a survivor in the group’s program said a girl in her school in Colombia was being bullied because there was a viral sex video of her going around the school.
“This other sweet kid in our program reached out to her and said, ‘Hey, I know what you’re going through, if you want help there’s help for you,’” Schwab recalled.
His team went to meet with the girl, who was by then 17 years old, he said. The girl told the advocates directly that she’d become the subject of a viral sex video and knew other girls who had suffered the same fate.
“We looped in Homeland Security, the U.S. Embassy and the Colombian National Police,” Schwab said. “And we offered our support to the 13 brave girls that came forward.”
Now that the news is out about Schulte’s arrest, two girls from the Philippines have announced that they, too, were abused, Schwab said.
Sentencing
Schwab said his group wants to bring the victims in this case to Arizona to testify at Schulte’s sentencing hearing, if the man is convicted.
He also hopes there will be a “nice fat check of restitution” for the survivors, Schwab said.
‘They Think They’re Lesser’
Schwab said his group loves holding people accountable for their actions against sex crime victims. But it especially loves holding American men accountable.
“A lot of these guys think they can just travel overseas, that these people in developing countries are lesser and they (the men) can do what they want,” he said. “I love watching them pay for what they’ve done.”
Protecting kids in developing countries also curbs criminal behaviors against kids in America, where many of the perpetrators live, Schwab said.
Couldn’t Stomach It
Libertas International is a decade old.
Schwab said he founded it because on a trip to Colombia in his younger days, he was confused to see young girls always coupled with older, sometimes elderly, European and American men.
“I put the blame on the girls for a long time, like, ‘Why are these young girls hanging out with these old guys?’” he said.
But then he sat down and talked with the girls.
“I realized they were forced to be with these men under threat of violence or their families were starving,” he said.
The power imbalance repeated itself again and again.
One day, Schwab watched a 320-pound man in his mid-70s escort a small, 14-year-old girl into his hotel, he said.
“Just the injustice of that whole scene – I couldn’t sit with it,” he said. The more he talked with the victims, the more indignant he became.
So, he started Libertas.
Libertas starts by making sure survivors’ basic needs are met, then progresses to counseling, and empowerment, such as helping girls finish school or learn a trade, said Schwab.
The advocates also help with tattoo removal for trafficking victims whose predators have stamped them with insignia.
“When a girl reports she’s been abused by an American citizen we can help facilitate communication between those agencies and do our part to make sure victims are heard by the justice system, and that justice is performed on their behalf,” said Schwab.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
