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July 8, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Pittsburgh Resident Sentenced on Interstate Travel
to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct Charge

WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA - A 40 year old Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, resident was sentenced today (July 8, 2010), in United States District Court in Wheeling by Judge Frederick P. Stamp, Jr.

United States Attorney Betsy C. Jividen announced that AMIYA K. MANDAL was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment to be followed by lifetime supervised release. MANDAL entered a plea of guilty on September 25, 2009, to one count of interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct on February 4, 2009, by traveling from Pittsburgh to Moundsville, West Virginia, for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a person that MANDAL believed to be a 13-year old girl.

MANDAL was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David J. Perri and was investigated by the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department.