(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced Tuesday that a former federal attorney was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for conspiring to sexually exploit numerous children.
According to the DOJ, the former attorney for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Mark Black, 50, of Arlington, Virginia, was a member of two online groups dedicated to locating prepubescent girls online and convincing the girls to livestream themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
The DOJ said in a Tuesday press release that Black induced a prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct on a live-streaming application while screen-recording that activity in July 2019.
That same month, Black and a co-conspirator allegedly also groomed another prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit acts on a photo- and video-sharing application. The co-conspirator surreptitiously hacked into that girl’s live-video feed and recorded the sexual acts before sending them to Black, according to the DOJ.
“Between July 2019 and March 2022, Black and the same co-conspirator were members of two additional groups dedicated to the sexual exploitation of children and the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM),” the DOJ added. “In January 2021, Black sent CSAM of a minor to one of the groups.”
Black’s electronic devices were said to be found with about 172,707 images of child porn. Of those files, over 1,300 depicted identified victims of his conduct, the DOJ said.
Black, who was formerly the Arlington Aquatic Club (AAC) board president, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to produce child pornography and coercion and enticement of a minor.
The FBI and FDIC-OIG investigated the case, which was part of the DOJ’s Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
