Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James T. Hayes, Jr., the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (“ICE") Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI"), announced today that NARENDRA TULSIRAM pled guilty in Manhattan federal court to sexually exploiting a child, transporting child pornography, and possessing child pornography. TULSIRAM, who has been in federal custody since his arrest in this case on Jan. 11, 2012, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “The depraved acts that Narenda Tulsiram committed against his 13-year-old victim brought an abrupt end to her childhood, and then he went even further - using pictures of the sexual abuse he forced her to endure in a campaign of extortion. Nothing can reclaim what Tulsiram stole from his victim, but we hope that his guilty plea and the time he will spend in jail bring some measure of closure."
ICE HSI Special Agent-in-Charge James T. Hayes, Jr. said: “Narendra Tulsiram shamelessly sexually exploited a child for nearly five years. HSI New York will continue to work with Federal and state prosecutors to arrest and prosecute predators who target young children."
According to the Complaint, the Superseding Indictment, other court documents, and statements made at the defendant’s plea proceeding:
From 2006 through September 2011, TULSIRAM sexually abused a female minor (the “Victim"). The abuse began when the Victim was 13-years old. From approximately 2008 through September 2011, TULSIRAM also took sexually explicit photographs chronicling his abuse of the Victim. In November 2011, after the Victim resisted TULSIRAM’s requests for additional sexual encounters, he used his e-mail account to send sexually explicit photographs of the Victim to the Victim’s e-mail account. In those e-mails, TULSIRAM threatened to send the sexually explicit photographs of the Victim to others, including her family, in an effort to get her to accede to his demands.
After TULSIRAM’s arrest, search warrants were executed for his cell phone and e-mail account. Forensic analysis of TULSIRAM’s cell phone recovered photographs depicting the Victim, and in some instances, the Victim and TULSIRAM, engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Forensic analysis of TULSIRAM’s cell phone also recovered threatening e-mails sent from TULSIRAM’s e-mail account to the Victim attaching the sexually explicit photographs of the Victim.
TULSIRAM, 50, of the Bronx, New York, pled guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of possessing child pornography, and one count of transporting child pornography. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for each of the sexual exploitation counts, a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the child pornography possession count, and a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the transportation of child pornography count. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Oetken on September 6, 2013 at 2:30 p.m.
Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of ICE HSI and the New York City Police Department.
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Kristy J. Greenberg, Rahul Mukhi and Adam Fee are in charge of the prosecution.
Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
