GREAT FALLS - Great Falls resident Lothar Konrad Krauth on Monday admitted he received child pornography after an investigation found thousands of images on his computer and electronic storage devices, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.
Krauth, 81, pleaded guilty to receipt of child porn as charged in an indictment. Krauth faces a minimum mandatory five years to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided. Judge Morris set sentencing for July 18 and continued Krauth’s release.
The prosecution said in court records that on Oct. 10, 2018, agents from the Homeland Security Investigations team in Great Falls received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The organization reported that the user of an internet provider address in Great Falls had uploaded an image of a nude prepubescent male. The address was identified as having been assigned to Krauth.
HSI agents and Great Falls police officers served a search warrant at Krauth’s residence on Oct. 26, 2018 and seized about 20 items of electronic media, including a desktop computer, nine external hard drives, six thumb drives and other items. Investigators then obtained a warrant to search all of the seized electronic media.
A forensic examination of Krauth’s desktop computer found about 400 images of child porn, while a subsequent analysis found thousands of child porn images. The majority of the child porn images depicted prepubescent children.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tom Bartleson and Cyndee Peterson prosecuted the case, which was investigated by HSI and the Great Falls Police Department.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
