Eric Bongiorni, Child Pornography, Washington 2016

Eric Bongiorni, a 32-year-old Mount Vernon man, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for possession and distribution of child pornography.

Bongiorni was arrested in March 2016, when a court-authorized search warrant revealed he had numerous images and videos of child sexual abuse on his electronic devices.

At the time of his arrest, Bongiorni was a registered sex offender, with a 2009 conviction in Skagit County Superior Court for three counts of child molestation.

According to records filed in the case, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was working online in an undercover capacity when he downloaded images of child pornography being shared over a peer-to-peer file sharing network.

The investigation linked the images to an internet protocol address (IP address) belonging to Bongiorni.

In his plea agreement, Bongiorni admits he collected child pornography since 2003. One device seized at his home contained 436 images and 267 videos of child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik also imposed a lifetime period of supervised release on Bongiorni.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Hampton.

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