Man Sentenced to 151 Months in Prison for Knowingly Receiving Child Sexual Abuse Material Through Dark Web Sites

An Illinois man was sentenced today in the Southern District of Illinois to 151 months, or 12 and a half years, in prison for knowingly receiving child sexual abuse material over the internet. 

According to court documents and statements made in connection with the sentencing, Kory R. Schulein, 37, of Sparta, pleaded guilty to knowingly receiving child pornography over the internet. According to court documents, Schulein first came to the attention to law enforcement in 2018 during an FBI investigation of child pornography on the dark web. Agents were able to track his internet protocol address and executed a federal search warrant at his home. Schulein served as a moderator of a dark web site dedicated to child exploitation and had been an active participant on other sites. Schulein had posted 13,733 messages, many of which included links to child exploitation images and videos. Schulein also collected and stored over 9,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material on an encrypted hard driveThe FBI’s Springfield Field Office investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Trial Attorneys Jessica Urban and Alicia A. Bove of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan D. Stump of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Illinois prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, 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.justice.gov/psc.