U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Connecticut

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, April 16, 2021

Southington Man Charged with Possessing Millions of Child Sex Abuse Images

Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and William S. Walker, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Boston, today announced that a federal grand jury in New Haven has returned an indictment charging RICHARD E. SMITH, 65, of Southington, with receipt and possession of child pornography.

The indictment was returned on March 29. Smith appeared yesterday via videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson and pleaded not guilty to the charge. Smith has been detained since his arrest on a criminal complaint on October 1, 2020.

As alleged in court documents, on October 1, 2020, HSI conducted a court-authorized search of Smith’s Southington residence. At the time of the search, Smith’s computer was running and connected to a website dedicated to child pornography, and one of Smith’s four computer monitors displayed a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing numerous child pornography filenames and internet hyperlinks. Investigators seized Smith’s computer and electronic devices. Forensic analysis of the seized devices revealed millions of images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.

If convicted of the charges, Smith faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 40 years.

Acting U.S. Attorney Boyle stressed that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This matter is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with the assistance of the Southington Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Doherty through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Southern District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, April 16, 2021

GirlsDoPorn Employee Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking Conspiracy

NEWS RELEASE SUMMARY – April 16, 2021

SAN DIEGO – Valorie Moser, former bookkeeper for the adult website GirlsDoPorn, pleaded guilty in federal court today to conspiring with the operators of the website to fraudulently coerce young women to appear in sex videos.

Moser, who worked for GirlsDoPorn (GDP) from 2015 to 2018, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Linda Lopez to Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion. Moser, the third of six defendants to plead guilty, admitted that she served as GDP’s bookkeeper, made travel arrangements for models, provided transportation for approximately 100 models once they arrived in San Diego, and performed miscellaneous other tasks. Moser reported her accounting activities to co-defendant Matthew Wolfe, and her interactions with the models to co-defendant Michael Pratt and others.

DEFENDANT Case Number 19cr4488-JLS

Valorie Moser Age: 38 San Diego, CA*

*Pleaded guilty to a Superseding Information charging Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.

Maximum Penalty: Five years in prison, $250,000 fine, a special assessment of $100.

CO-DEFENDANTS

Michael James Pratt Age: 36 Fugitive

Matthew Isaac Wolfe Age 37 San Diego, CA

Ruben Andre Garcia Age: 31 San Diego, CA**

** Pleaded guilty to Counts 1 and 7

Theodore Gyi Age: 42 Rancho Aliso, CA**

** Pleaded guilty to Superseding Information charging Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371

Amberlyn Dee Nored Age: 27 San Diego, CA

SUMMARY OF CHARGES

Count 1 (charging all defendants)

Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion, 18 U.S.C. § 1594(c)

Maximum Penalty: Life in prison, $250,000 fine, and a special assessment of $5,000 under 18 U.S.C. § 3014.

Count 2 (Pratt)

Production of Child Pornography, 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and (e)

Minimum penalty: Fifteen years in prison; Maximum penalty: 30 years in custody, $250,000 fine, and a special assessment of $5,000 under 18 U.S.C. § 3014.

Count 3 (Pratt)

Sex Trafficking of a Minor by Force, Fraud and Coercion, 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a)(1) and (2)

Minimum penalty: Fifteen years in prison; Maximum penalty: life in custody, $250,000 fine, and a special assessment of $5,000 under 18 U.S.C. § 3014.

Counts 4 (Pratt, Wolfe, Garcia), 5 (Pratt, Garcia), 6 (Pratt, Wolfe, Garcia), 7 (Pratt, Garcia, Gyi), 8 (Pratt, Garcia, Gyi)

Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion, 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a) and (b)(1)

Minimum penalty: Fifteen years in prison; Maximum penalty: life in custody, $250,000 fine, and a special assessment of $5,000 under 18 U.S.C. § 3014.

INVESTIGATING AGENCY

Federal Bureau of Investigation – San Diego Field Office

San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of New Jersey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, April 16, 2021

Camden Man Charged with Sex Trafficking of a Minor

CAMDEN, N.J. – A Camden man is scheduled to make his initial appearance today on a sex trafficking charge, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

Semaj A. Gilmore, 31, is charged by complaint with one count of sex trafficking of a minor. He is scheduled to appear by videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen M. Williams this afternoon.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

In April 2021, investigators learned that a missing juvenile from Pennsylvania was being advertised for sexually illicit activities on a website that is often used to advertise acts of prostitution. On April 13, 2021, an undercover agent contacted a phone number associated with the advertisement. The undercover agent and the user of the phone number, later revealed to be Gilmore, exchanged a series of messages that ultimately led to the undercover agent meeting the victim in a motel room in or around Mount Laurel, New Jersey, purportedly to engage in sexual activities in exchange for cash. Among other messages, Gilmore instructed the undercover agent to “get condoms” and to confirm that he was not “a cop.” When uniformed officers entered the motel room, Gilmore, who had been waiting in a car in the adjacent parking lot, fled the scene. Officers stopped Gilmore’s car and recovered the phone used to arrange the meeting between the victim and the undercover agent.

The count of sex trafficking of a minor carries a statutory mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.

Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited special agents of the FBI, Philadelphia Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Driscoll, with the investigation leading to the charge. She also thanked members of the Mount Laurel Police Department, under the direction of Chief Steve Riedener, and the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Scott A. Coffina, for their assistance.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Camden.