Investigators discovered photos of nude children, estimated to be as young as 8, in an email account they said was associated with South Dakota billionaire T. Denny Sanford, according to previously sealed records released Thursday.
The records — which ProPublica had been fighting to make public for almost three years — shed light on the origins of the child pornography investigation into Sanford, a credit card magnate and philanthropist who has donated vast sums to children’s causes.
In 2020, ProPublica first reported that South Dakota authorities were investigating Sanford and had referred the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice. Last year, the South Dakota attorney general announced it closed its investigation without filing charges.
The status of a federal investigation into the matter remains unclear. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment Thursday when asked whether the department’s inquiry remains open.
The investigation of Sanford started after AOL’s parent company sent a tip to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which passed it on to authorities in South Dakota, according to the new documentation. The center is a private nonprofit that operates a tip line where people and companies can report images of suspected child sex trafficking and abuse. The organization’s staff reviews the tips and refers them to law enforcement.
The material provided to the organization included 36 image files with child pornography in an AOL account that investigators linked to Sanford, according to the documents released Thursday.
Sanford’s attorney, Stacy Hegge, released a statement Thursday that said various other people had access to Sanford’s electronic devices and that prosecutors ultimately decided against filing criminal charges in the case. “Mr. Sanford appreciates that after a thorough investigation the authorities concluded there exists no prosecutable offense. Here, because there is no prosecutable case or further action to be taken, the court records being released contain only allegations. These preliminary allegations were provided to law enforcement prior to law enforcement’s exhaustive investigation and its realization that various individuals had documented access to the electronic devices at issue, including signs of hacking. While some claim releasing affidavits that reiterate these allegations constitute transparency, releasing preliminary allegations made prior to completing the full investigation only misinforms people and obscures the investigation’s conclusions that no prosecutable offense occurred.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/denny-sanford-investigation-photos-south-dakota