Kory R. Schulein, Child Pornography, Illinois 2023

A Randolph County man has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for downloading and sharing child pornography on the dark web.

Kory R. Schulein, 37, of Sparta, Illinois, pleaded guilty to receiving child sexual abuse material over the internet in April. He was sentenced to 151 months in prison on April 2023 by United States District Judge Stephen P. McGlynn.

According to court documents, Schulein first came to the attention of law enforcement in 2018 during an FBI investigation of child pornography on the dark web. Agents were able to track his internet protocol address and executed a federal search warrant at his home.

Schulein served as a moderator of a dark web site dedicated to child exploitation and had been an active participant on other sites. Prosecutors told the court that on one of the sites, Schulein had posted 13,733 messages, many of which included links to child exploitation images and videos. Schulein also collected and stored over 9,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material on an encrypted hard drive.

As part of his sentence, Schulein was ordered to serve 10 years on supervised release and pay a $5,000 special assessment. He previously paid $12,000 in restitution to several of the victims.

The case was investigated by FBI-Springfield, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Marshals Service. Trial Attorneys Jessica Urban and Alicia A. Bove of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan D. Stump of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Illinois prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006.

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