United States Attorney Cole Finegan | U.S. Department of Justice
A Colorado man, Christopher Carl Meier, 41, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for his involvement in distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and participating in a dark-web site dedicated to such content. The sentencing was announced yesterday.
Court documents reveal that Meier, already on parole for a 2013 conviction related to the sexual exploitation of a child, joined a dark-web platform focused on CSAM depicting boys. He pleaded guilty on July 9 to conspiracy to distribute CSAM and five counts of distribution. During his membership of over 18 months, he made more than 600 posts on the site, where he shared images and videos showing minor boys engaged in sexual acts. Meier admitted to producing this material by deceiving the boys into believing they were interacting with a girl their age online and persuading them to perform sex acts on webcam. The FBI has identified at least 65 victims connected to Meier's activities.
The announcement was made by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Kirsch for the District of Colorado; Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; and Special Agent in Charge Mark D. Michalek of the FBI Denver Field Office.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Child Exploitation Operational Unit and Denver Field Office. The case was prosecuted by Acting Deputy Chief Kyle Reynolds of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alecia L. Riewerts for the District of Colorado.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse nationwide. This program seeks to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals exploiting children via the Internet while also identifying and rescuing victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.
