An arrest warrant has been issued for the founder of a controversial 3D-printed gun company in connection to the alleged sexual assault of a minor, according to Texas authorities.

Suspect Cody Wilson, 30, owns Defense Distributed, which sells blueprints for producing plastic firearms using 3D printers.

The alleged victim, an unnamed 16-year-old girl from Central Texas, according to Austin police, told a counselor she’d had sex with Wilson Aug. 15, 2018, in an Austin hotel before he paid her $500, according to the arrest warrant affidavit filed Wednesday in Travis County District Court.

Austin police said they received a call from the counselor Aug. 22 who reported that a client, a girl under the age of 17, told her she’d had sex with a 30-year-old man a week before.

Police said they were present Aug. 27 when staff from the Center for Child Protection interviewed the alleged victim. The girl said she’d met the man on SugarDaddyMeet.com and that he’d used the screen name “Sanjuro,” according to police.

She said the two exchanged phone numbers and talked via iMessage, police said.

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A search of the girl’s cellphone uncovered messages to SugarDaddyMeet.com as well as links to messages from Sanjuro, according to police. And, in one message, Sanjuro identified himself as Cody Wilson, police said.

“Victim said that ‘Sanjuro’ described himself to the victim as a ‘big deal,’” according to the affidavit.

Wilson’s Texas driver’s license picture also matched the “Sanjuro” profile image on SugarDaddyMeet.com, police said.

Wilson and the girl met at a coffee shop Aug. 15 and left together in a black Ford Edge, police said. They said the vehicle was similar to a 2015 black Ford Edge registered with Wilson’s business, Defense Distributed.

Later, valet surveillance video from a hotel recorded Wilson and the girl’s getting out of the car, according to police.

Police said they reviewed hotel surveillance footage “showing the victim and Wilson exiting an elevator onto the seventh floor. … Hotel records showed that Wilson was the lone registered guest for room 718 on that date.”

Wilson sexually assaulted her and then “retrieved five $100.00 bills from a bag on the floor” and gave her the money, the girl told police, according to the affidavit.

Video showed Wilson and her leaving the hotel, the affidavit alleged. He later dropped her off at a Whataburger restaurant, she told authorities.

ABC News' attempts to reach Wilson were unsuccessful.

Wilson is not in custody and his last known location was Taipei, Taiwan, according to Austin police. He missed a scheduled flight back to the U.S. and had left the country before police could interview him, authorities said Wednesday during a news conference.

Austin police said they were working with national and international authorities to locate him.

"We don't know why he went to Taiwan but we do know before he left, he was informed by a friend of the victim that she had spoken to police and police were investigating him," Cmdr. Troy Officer said.

Officer said he was not sure of Wilson's exact return date but the time had passed.

Detectives have spoken with the victim, Officer said, and "in their opinion, if someone mistakes her age, it would be because they think she’s younger, not older, than the 16 year old that she is.”

Police are still investigating, Officer said. Wilson could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, according to ABC Austin affiliate KVUE-TV.

Wilson is a self-described "crypto-anarchist" at the center of a fierce legal battle over whether Americans should be able to print guns that would be unregulated and untraceable.

Kelly West/AFP/Getty Images

After Wilson in 2013 successfully fired a bullet from the world’s first 3D-printed handgun and posted its design online, the video got nearly half a million views, and the design was downloaded nearly 100,000 times. After a few days, the link was terminated by law enforcement officials.

Years of litigation followed, leading to a settlement in July allowing Wilson to re-release the gun’s downloadable blueprints, giving anyone with access to a 3D printer the ability to create their own so-called “ghost guns” – unregulated unregistered and untraceable firearms.

Over the summer, a federal judge temporarily stopped him from putting gun blueprints online and in August, a federal judge in Seattle extended the injunction, after a coalition of states and the District of Columbia said making plastic weapons available would create a public safety issue.

Later that month, Wilson said he'd started selling the plans for producing plastic firearms using 3-D printers despite an injunction blocking it because of concerns about public safety.</s>Photo: AP

Cody Rutledge Wilson, the 30-year-old Texas man who’s been fighting with the U.S. government to publish instructions for 3D-printed guns on the internet, was charged today with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson allegedly met the girl on a website called SugarDaddyMeet.com.



Wilson allegedly paid the girl, whose name has been withheld in court documents, $500 for sex at a hotel in Austin, Texas. The exact age of the victim is not immediately clear, though the affidavit for the arrest warrant explains that she’s under the age of 17.

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As local news station KVUE notes, Wilson allegedly used the name “Sanjuro” on SugarDaddyMeet.com and told the child victim that he was a “big deal,” according to court documents. The girl allegedly met Wilson at Bennu Coffee on 515 South Congress Ave. in Austin where he arrived in a black Ford SUV that matched a license plate registered under his firearms business, Defense Distributed. The police apparently have video of the meeting.

Wilson allegedly took the girl to Archer Hotel in Austin where surveillance video reportedly also captured images of the two together. Wilson has not yet been booked into jail, according to the Austin Statesman, and it’s not even clear if he’s been arrested yet.

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Cody Wilson made national headlines recently when he became the loudest voice defending 3D-printed guns. Defense Distributed sells 3D printers that can manufacture guns for $2,000. Federal courts have blocked Wilson from publishing the plans for guns, but he began emailing the plans to people who ordered them in August. Wilson just seemed happy to define how the issue was being talked about.

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“It seems like I’ve crystallized the terms of the debate according to how I wanted it,” Wilson told the New York Times over the summer. “The argument that I’m making, although not always very well, is that what I’m doing is actually a pretty mainline American idea.”

Wilson was named one of “The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World” in 2012 by Wired, though at the time the publication was only referring to his association with guns.

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[KVUE and Austin Statesman]

Update, 5:50pm: According to Ars Technica, Wilson is in Taipei, Taiwan and didn’t get on a return flight to the United States after getting a tip off that he’s wanted for these charges.

At the press conference, [the Austin Police Department] shared a few more details on the situation not previously included in the court documents. The alleged victim is 16 years old and lives in Central Texas. Regarding her entry on SugarDaddyMeet, Cmdr. Officer said authorities have no reason to believe that “anyone other than the victim” signed up for the site. “The charge is sexual assault, and the statute says a victim under 17 is considered a child,” Cmdr. Officer said. “My detectives have interviewed and spoken with this victim, and in their opinion if someone mistakes their age, it’d be because she’s younger not older.” Cmdr. Officer added that the allegations against Wilson would constitute a second degree felony, which is punishable by up to 20 years and a $10,000 fine.

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The judge in the case set a bond at $150,000 despite the fact that Wilson still hasn’t been arrested. If he returns to the United States he’ll have to surrender his passport.

Update, September 20, 2018: U.S. Marshals have released a wanted poster for Wilson, who’s believed to still be on the run in Taiwan.

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Wilson was staying at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taipei on September 6th and checked out on the 7th, according to the UDN news site. Taiwanese authorities are now in contact with their U.S. counterparts but Wilson’s exact whereabouts are unknown.

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Correction: This article originally stated that Cody Wilson was 31 years old. He’s 30. Gizmodo regrets the error.</s>Cody Wilson, who created 3D-printed guns and fought with the U.S. government to publish instructions making it possible for anyone with access to a 3D printer to make their own, has been charged with sexual assault. The charge is a second-degree felony, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Wilson, 30, allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old girl—and, according to Austin Police Department Commander Troy Officer, "if someone mistakes her age, it would be because they think she’s younger, not older." Police claim Wilson met the girl on a dating website called SugarDaddyMeet.com, and, on August 15th, had sex with her in an Austin, Texas hotel room. He then paid her $500 dollars in cash. 



The Austin Police Department was contacted when the girl told her counselor about the incident, and began an investigation. The girl told authorities that she and Wilson exchanged messages and phone numbers after meeting online. (On SugarDaddyMeet.com, an affidavit shows that Wilson went by the username "Sanjuro.") Wilson allegedly confirmed his identity to the girl—he told her that he was "a big deal"—and the police were able to match information from his driver's license to his profile.

According to court documents, Wilson allegedly sent the girl photos of his penis, and she sent him a nude photo. After messaging each other, they decided to meet in person at a coffee shop. The girl alleges then Wilson drove her to the Archer Hotel, where they had sex; according to authorities, hotel surveillance footage and records show Wilson and the girl at the hotel, and entering a room together. Afterwards, he gave her money then dropped her off at a Whataburger.

Wilson is most known for being a "crypto-anarchist," and for believing 3D-printed guns are a constitutional right. His company, Defense Distributed, is a site that's focused on homemade gun-making. He currently has a restraining order from a federal judge to prevent him from publishing instructions on how to print a gun because of the threat they pose, and in 2015, Wired placed him on their "Most Dangerous People on the Internet" list for his role in making guns more accessible.

During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Austin police revealed that Wilson recently left the U.S. on a flight to Taiwan—and has missed his flight home. It is believed Wilson knew he was under investigation before he left the country, and a warrant is currently out for his arrest. "We’re also working with national and international law enforcement partners to locate him and bring him to justice," Commander Officer explained.</s>A gun-rights advocate known for his quest to help Americans manufacture firearms at home using 3-D printers may be on the run in Taiwan, after police in Texas charged him for paying to have sex with a 16-year-old girl.

The Austin Police Department is working with national and international authorities to locate Cody Wilson, 30, and “bring him to justice” after he became aware of the investigation and missed a flight home from Taipei, Commander Troy Officer said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Wilson’s nonprofit firm, Defense Distributed, recently clashed with Democratic-led states over his plan to publish gun blueprints online. The Austin-based company provides templates of various firearms on its website, which users can download and produce at home on 3-D printers.

Wilson, who has described himself as a “crypto-anarchist,” was charged by Austin police with sexually assaulting the unidentified girl by paying $500 to have sex with her at a hotel. Police say Wilson met her on the website “SugarDaddyMeet.com,” after bragging to her about his newfound notoriety.

Surveillance video from Aug. 15 shows the pair at a coffee shop and later at a hotel. The victim told authorities about the incident. Police said it wasn’t clear if Wilson knew the girl’s age, but that authorities who interviewed her believe she looks younger than 16, not older.

Police said a friend of the victim called Wilson and tipped him off that authorities were investigating. It’s not clear how the friend knew Wilson.

A call to Wilson’s mobile phone wasn’t answered and the voice mail box was full. His criminal defense lawyer couldn’t immediately be identified. Josh Blackman, Wilson’s lawyer in the civil suit that was filed by the states, said he only represents the Texan in civil matters.

After the charges became public on Wednesday, organizers of a Second Amendment conference set for the coming weekend said Wilson wouldn’t be speaking at the event. He had been scheduled on Sept. 22 to discuss the impact of 3-D printing on the future of gun control at the 33rd annual gun rights policy conference in Chicago.

The charge Wilson faces is a second-degree felony in Texas. If found guilty, he could find himself barred from owning a firearm due to state and federal regulations.

Gun-control activists have argued that Defense Distributed’s templates could put guns in the hands of criminals. Gun-rights activists argued that untraceable guns are already prohibited under federal law, making the templates simply a technological advancement in the firearms space.

In August, a Seattle judge blocked Defense Distributed from posting the 3-D printing gun templates to its website. In an effort to circumvent the decision, Wilson instead started selling the files instead of giving them away for free.

He has also used the Defense Distributed website to raise over $340,000 for his 3-D printed gun rights cause.</s>After skipping his flight back to the US in the wake of accusations of sexual assault against a minor, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson attempted to rent an apartment in Taipei this week, according to United Daily News (Chinese, Google Translate), a Chinese-language media outlet based in Taiwan.

Judge orders Cody Wilson’s arrest, but he skipped his return flight from Taiwan That article indicates that Wilson appears to have initially passed himself off as an American student living in the city. But after Wilson seemed to have secured an apartment by making an initial down payment, the rental agency reportedly recognized him and called the authorities. UDN writes that area police and Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau are now trying to again locate Wilson.

On Wednesday, police in Austin, Texas, first announced that they had a warrant out for the arrest of the 3D-printed gun pioneer on that allegation of sexual assault of an underage girl. At a press conference later that afternoon, the Austin Police Department revealed that Wilson’s last known location was Taiwan and that the department was not sure whether Wilson had gone to Taiwan on legitimate business or whether he was expressly trying to flee the United States.

"We can't confirm any of the [Taiwan] reports just yet; no updates planned for today," Lisa Cortinas, a spokeswoman for the Austin Police Department, told Ars on Thursday afternoon.

The reported rental incident is at least the second media account of Wilson being on the ground in Taiwan. Earlier, The Taiwan News cited a Chinese-language publication known as Apple Daily when reporting that Wilson was spotted at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Taipei after having arrived in the city on September 6. However, Wilson checked out on September 7, according to Apple Daily.

Given that Wilson's current whereabouts remain unconfirmed, his arrest may not necessarily come soon. Earlier today, the United States Marshals Service (USMS) officially distributed a press release along with a wanted poster to American media.

"You have to realize, here in Texas, with our nature being so close to the Republic of Mexico, we have a lot of fugitives," Brandon Filla, an Austin-based spokesman with the USMS, told Ars on Wednesday evening. "The only thing that's different [in Wilson's case] is the geographic location."

A major difference between dealing with cases in Mexico versus Taiwan is that Mexico will extradite Americans who are wanted. China lacks such a treaty with the United States, and Taiwan is considered by Beijing to be a part of the People’s Republic of China despite often acting as its own country.

Even if extradition isn't a given in this scenario, Wilson could be subject to deportation order under Taiwanese law. According to The Taiwan News, the National Immigration Agency would detain Wilson should he attempt to leave the island. Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau has noted to the press that, since Wilson has not committed any crimes in Taiwan, he cannot be arrested. But he could be ordered to leave the island.

As of Wednesday evening, the USMS had not begun interviewing anyone that it believes may be connected to the case.

"You want to know what is he willing to do," Filla said when asked about those initial interviews. "What is he capable of? What is his income? And who may foster him while he's a fugitive?"

Wilson has still not responded to Ars' repeated requests for comment. Calls to the Defense Distributed office went to voicemail on Thursday afternoon.

The USMS is asking anyone who has any information regarding Wilson to contact the agency's anonymous tip line at 512-800-4213.</s>AUSTIN, Texas—On Wednesday morning, a county judge signed the arrest warrant for 3D-printed gun rights activist Cody Wilson, who is accused of sexually assaulting an unnamed underage girl.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Austin Police Department told the public that Wilson still wasn't in custody. The Defense Distributed founder's last known whereabouts are Taipei, Taiwan, and he skipped his flight back to the States. Authorities believe he received a tip about the new allegations.

"We know Mr. Wilson frequently travels for business," Commander Troy Officer, of APD’s Organized Crime Division, told assembled press shortly after 2pm. "We don't know why he went to Taiwan, but we do know that he was informed that he was being investigated."

In a five-page affidavit obtained earlier in the day by Ars, APD detective Shaun Donovan outlines what allegedly took place between Wilson and the unnamed victim. The Defense Distributed founder initially met with the girl on August 15 at Bennu Coffee on 515 South Congress Ave. 3D-printed gun pioneer Cody Wilson accused of having sex with underage girl

APD later obtained surveillance video from the area, which showed the girl at around 8:09pm that evening. She also told police that she next got in Wilson’s black Ford Edge SUV. The affidavit notes that a Ford Edge is registered to Defense Distributed.

The girl told police that she accompanied Wilson to the Archer Hotel, about 13 miles north of Bennu, and that Wilson parked using the hotel’s valet service. APD discovered hotel surveillance video showing that Wilson and the girl exited the car at the hotel around 8:35pm. Police also obtained "digital valet receipts," which showed that the SUV was returned to Wilson around 9:17pm.

According to the girl, she and Wilson took an elevator to the 7th Floor, where they entered Room 718. Again, hotel surveillance video corroborated her account, and hotel records confirmed that Wilson was registered for the hotel that evening. After their encounter, Wilson allegedly paid her with five $100 bills.

Police say Wilson next drove the girl 33 miles south and dropped her off at a Whataburger. Once more, police found that video footage corroborated her account.

A week after the alleged encounter, a counselor contacted APD on August 22 to inform them that one of her clients had been involved in this incident. Detectives then interviewed the girl, who provided numerous details about her alleged encounter with Wilson.

The girl's parents also allowed the police to search the girl's iPhone. There, authorities found numerous messages and links to SugarDaddyMeet.com, the website where Wilson and the girl apparently met.

Police ultimately matched a Texas driver’s license of Wilson, who allegedly went by the handle "Sanjuro," with Sanjuro’s profile picture on the website.

Wilson and the girl exchanged messages first through SugarDaddyMeet and later via iMessages. Reportedly, he eventually told the girl that he was a "big deal." When she attempted to learn more about him, the girl found numerous news articles about the digital firearms activist.

She was interviewed a second time on August 30 by Austin police, and at that time she told authorities she and Wilson had exchanged nude photos of one another.

Today, Travis County Magistrate Judge Tamara Needles set a bond at $150,000 and required that Wilson surrender his passport. Upon arrest, Judge Needles also ordered police to take photographs of the inside of Wilson’s "upper legs," presumably as a way to be identified by the victim. Wilson apparently has a "uniquely identifiable skin condition," according to court documents.

Wilson still not in custody

APD notified the press shortly after 1pm that it would be sharing updates on the Wilson situation. Cmdr. Officer started by outlining the details from the affidavit before revealing the fact that Wilson wasn't yet in custody and was last known to be in Taipei, Taiwan. Cmdr. Officer did not know the precise date when Wilson flew out to Taiwan, nor did he know the exact date of Wilson's missed return flight.

APD is now working with US Marshals and international partners to carry out the arrest warrant. Wilson has also been entered into a national law enforcement database for sexual assault of a child, Cmdr. Officer said.

At the press conference, APD shared a few more details on the situation not previously included in the court documents. The alleged victim is 16 years old and lives in Central Texas. Regarding her entry on SugarDaddyMeet, Cmdr. Officer said authorities have no reason to believe that "anyone other than the victim" signed up for the site.

“The charge is sexual assault, and the statute says a victim under 17 is considered a child," Cmdr. Officer said. "My detectives have interviewed and spoken with this victim, and in their opinion if someone mistakes their age, it’d be because she’s younger not older.”

Cmdr. Officer added that the allegations against Wilson would constitute a second degree felony, which is punishable by up to 20 years and a $10,000 fine.

When asked if Wilson said anything indicating he knew the reality of the situation, Cmdr. Officer didn't share any details from the messages between Wilson and the girl referenced in court documents. “Any time you solicit—whether as a child or as an adult—it’s illegal," Cmdr. Officer said. "This happens to be a child, but I don't think my detectives have ever sat down with an [alleged perpetrator] that said, 'I knew the victim was underage.'”

Cmdr. Officer fielded a few other questions, like if the APD knew whether Wilson had a history of this alleged action (right now, they're only aware of this particular incident) or whether anything indicates this might be entrapment. "That’s why we have the courtroom and attorneys," Cmdr. Officer said. "Our job is to enforce the law and make an arrest on the front end. We felt we had enough to charge him with and we had the District Attorney and Judge signing off on the affidavit.”

Cmdr. Officer ended the press conference by encouraging anyone with information related to this case or any case where someone was victimized to reach out to the APD tip line. Ars will also be sending a few follow-up questions to the APD regarding the status of the search for Wilson, and we'll update this story should any new details become available.</s>Cody Wilson, the owner of the highly controversial company, Defense Distributed, which sells plans for an assortment of 3D printed guns, is being sought for questioning after allegations of sexual assault of a minor have been leveled against him, according to KVUE News. Wilson has been in the news quite a bit lately, mostly related to the manner in which he chooses to run his business. His decision to distribute plans for 3D printed guns was controversial, due to loopholes in laws and regulations regarding firearms handed down by the administration of Donald Trump.

Within days of the loophole allowing plans for 3D printed guns to be sold legally being made public, Trump gave the green light to his cabinet to take the necessary steps to close it down. Defense Distributed challenged the loophole being closed, and decided to stay in business distributing plans for 3D printed guns while awaiting a verdict from a federal judge. That decision came in August, and it was decided that the distribution of plans for 3D printed guns was not to be allowed. An order was placed to block access to the files on the Defense Distributed website.

Wilson decided to continue selling their 3D gun plans anyway, using email and USB sticks as a means of facilitating file transfers instead of through his website. While this reorganization of distribution plans was taking place, Wilson was also spending a lot of time on Sugardaddymeet.com under the username “Sanjuro,” as reported by KVUE. The minor, believed to be 16-years-old, alleges that she met Wilson on that site, and they began messaging each other via iMessage as time went on. They eventually decided to meet.

When they met, she stated that Wilson picked her up in his black Ford Edge, and supplied a license plate number that corresponded to what is on file for that make of car registered to his company. He then took her to the Archer Hotel at 3121 Palm Way, where surveillance cameras caught the pair on film together. She claims that is where he sexually assaulted her, and then gave her $500. She also claims he messaged her using his real name and describing himself as a “big deal.”

Austin Police do not believe that Wilson is in the U.S., and are currently working with federal and international authorities to try to locate him. It is believed he may be in a non-extradition country where he is continuing to distribute plans for 3D printed guns. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is encouraged to contact the Austin Police.</s>A Texas man at the centre of a legal battle over his plan to make instructions available for 3D-printed plastic guns flew to Taiwan after learning the police in Austin were investigating an accusation he had sex with an underage girl, officials said on Wednesday.

Cody Wilson, 30, was placed under investigation after a counsellor told police on August 22 that a 16-year-old girl had said she was paid US$500 to have sex with him at a hotel, Austin Police Commander Troy Officer said at a news conference.

Police later interviewed the girl and on Wednesday obtained a warrant for Wilson’s arrest, but by then he had caught a flight to Taiwan, Officer said.

“We know Mr. Wilson frequently travels for business. We don’t know why he went to Taiwan,” Officer said. “But we do know before he left he was informed by a friend of the victim that she had spoken to police and the police were investigating him for having sex with a minor.”

Taiwan does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Deadly download: things to know about 3D-printed guns

According to the affidavit, Wilson met the girl through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com. The girl said she and Wilson had sex at an Austin hotel on August 15, according to the document.

The girl said she met Wilson in the car park of an Austin coffee shop before they drove to the hotel, where Wilson had sex with her and afterward gave her US$500 in cash. She said Wilson then dropped her off at a Whataburger restaurant.

Video surveillance shows Wilson and the youth getting out of a vehicle at the hotel and then exiting an lift together on the seventh floor, Donovan wrote. The footage shows them returning to the lift later that night.

Hotel records showed that Wilson registered the same room in which the girl reported he had sex with her, the detective wrote.

Wilson is identified in the affidavit as the owner of Austin-based Defense Distributed.

After a federal court barred Wilson from posting the printable gun blueprints online for free last month, he announced that he had begun selling them for any amount of money to US customers through his website.

The states sued to stop an agreement that the government reached with Defense Distributed, arguing that the blueprints for how to print plastic guns could be obtained by felons or terrorists.</s>Cody Wilson, the Texas man at the center of a legal battle for offering blueprints for making guns for 3D printers, is accused in court documents of sexually assaulting a teen girl, according to media reports.

Wilson, 30, of Austin, Texas, was not in custody, but was in Taiwan, the Austin American-Statesman reported. It said Austin police were working with international agencies to bring him back.

It was not clear why he was in Taiwan, however the newspaper suggested he may have been tipped off by a friend of the victim that police were investigating him.

Wilson was behind a five-year federal fight over the right to offer the gun blueprints for sale over the internet.

Court documents indicate that an arrest warrant was issued for Wilson on a charge of sexual assault, a second-degree felony, according to the American-Statesman.

The arrest affidavit, also obtained by CBS News, was filed in Travis Count district court and alleged that a girl under the age of 17 said in August she engaged in sex for $500 with a man authorities identified as Wilson.

The girl told authorities that she met the man, who used the name "Sanjuro," on a website called SugarDaddyMeet.com.

According to the newspaper, the affidavit alleges that a user identified himself to the teenager as "Cody Wilson" and described himself to her as a "big deal."

A police investigation, using hotel records, driver's license information and surveillance footage, showed Wilson had allegedly rented a room at the hotel where the victim said the two had sex.

The warrant for Wilson's arrest orders him held on $150,000 bond and requires him to surrender his passport, CBS News reports.

Wilson's battle over his 3D printer blueprints, which included federal rulings and a decision by the U.S. State Department, ended with the Trump administration reversing an earlier ruling and agreeing to allow him to post plans for the designs online.

In a recent interview with the American-Statesman, Wilson said his championing of the issue grew out of his belief in crypto-anarchy, a philosophy that seeks to use a free internet and encryption technology to reduce government influence over people's lives.

"I will continue to fight anyone who will try to sue me and say that I can't do this," he told the newspaper.</s>Cody Wilson, the owner of a company that makes untraceable 3D-printed guns who is wanted on an arrest warrant accusing him of sex with an underage girl, has left the U.S. and was last known to be in Taiwan, investigators in Texas said Wednesday.

Austin Police Cmdr. Troy Officer told reporters that the department was working with national and international law enforcement to locate Wilson, whom Officer said missed a scheduled return flight to the U.S.

Officer said it was unclear why Wilson went to Taiwan, but he added that a friend of the 16-year-old alleged victim told Wilson that he was under investigation before he left. The commander also said Wilson’s name had been entered into a national law enforcement computer listing him as wanted for sexual assault of a child.

Investigators said Wilson met the girl for sex at an Austin hotel on Aug. 15 and paid her $500 afterward. A counselor for the teenager reported the accusation to Austin police a week later, saying Wilson met the girl online.

In an affidavit, Austin Police Detective Shaun Donovan wrote that surveillance footage showed Wilson and the girl getting out of an SUV at the hotel and then exiting an elevator together on the seventh floor, Donovan wrote. The footage showed them returning to the elevator later that night.

Investigators said the SUV’s license plate matched one of the vehicles registered to Wilson’s business, Defense Distributed. Donovan wrote in his affidavit that hotel records showed that Wilson registered the same room — number 718 — as the room where the girl reported he had sex with her.

Officer told reporters that detectives believe “if someone mistakes [the alleged victim’s] age it would be because they think she’s younger, not older than the 16-year-old that she is.”

After a federal court barred Wilson from posting the printable gun blueprints online for free last month, he announced he had started selling them for any amount of money to U.S. customers through his website.

More than a dozen states sued to stop an agreement that the government reached with Defense Distributed, arguing that the blueprints for how to print plastic guns could be obtained by felons or terrorists.

Fox News’ Lucia I. Suarez-Sang, Christopher Carbone and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An arrest warrant is issued in Texas for 3D-printed gun rights activist and Defense Distributed owner Cody Wilson in connection with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson was last known to be in Taiwan.