Ohio Native Pleads Guilty to Coercing Minors to Engage in Sexual Activity and Produce Child Pornography Through “Internet Sextortion”

Today, an Ohio native living in Port St. Lucie, Florida pled guilty to using the internet to target and extort children through sexual exploitation (“sextortion”) and pornographic offenses.

Benjamin G. Greenberg, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Mark Selby, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) made the announcement.

Richard Eugene Fye, III, 24, of Ohio, pleaded guilty to Counts 1 to 4 in the Indictment charging: Use Of Means of Interstate Commerce to Persuade, Induce, Entice, or Coerce a Minor to Engage in Illegal Sexual Activity, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2422(b); Production of Material Containing Visual Depictions of Sexual Exploitation of Minors, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2251(a) & (e); Receiving Material Containing Visual Depictions of Sexual Exploitation of Minors, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252(a)(2)&(b)(2); and Possession of Material Containing Visual Depictions of Sexual Exploitation of Minors (including those under age of 12), in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252(a)(4)(B) & (b)(2). The defendant faces mandatory terms of incarceration and a possible statutory sentence of life imprisonment. The defendant also faces up to a lifetime of supervised release and must register as a sex offender. The defendant’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 8, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks in West Palm Beach.

According to a stipulated factual basis filed in this case, in December 2016, a 15-year-old female in Michigan made a complaint about online coercion. The victim stated an unknown subject, who identified himself as “MARCO”, a 14 year old male from Port St. Lucie, contacted her using a social networking application. “MARCO” convinced her to send him nude photographs using her cell phone. “MARCO” then threatened that if the minor female did not also send nude videos of herself, he would send the photographs to her friends and family. Fearing that the pictures would be disseminated the minor female sent “MARCO” the requested videos.

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement learned that “MARCO” was in fact defendant Richard Eugene Fye III.

On January 31, 2017, members of HSI executed a federal search warrant at a location where Fye was living and working and recovered the defendant’s cellular telephone and laptop. The electronic devices contained nude images of the victim, a profile of 14 year old “MARCO” (which included a picture of a teenage male), and over 200 suspected child pornography videos, including images of prepubescent minors under 12 years of age, sado-masochism, and bondage.

Law enforcement also discovered a number of videos and chats involving other minor girls that Fye met online and persuaded, induced, enticed, and/or coerced to produce sexually explicit images and send him via the internet. During a number of these chats, Fye distributed child pornography to minors, in order to illustrate the sexual acts the defendant wanted them to perform in the requested videos.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. 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 locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Mr. Greenberg commended the investigative efforts of ICE-HSI and the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen Lineberger.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.