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Tennessee Man Convicted of Child Exploitation Conspiracy
A federal jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has convicted Brain K. Hendrix, 42, of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, of child pornography charges related to his participation in two websites that were operated for the purpose of coercing and enticing minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct on web camera.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente, and Section Chief Calvin Shivers announced the conviction.
According to court records and evidence at trial, co-conspirators created false profiles on social networking sites, such as YouTube, that portrayed them as young teenagers. They used these profiles to lure children to the websites they controlled.
Once on the conspirators’ websites, the conspirators played pre-recorded videos of prior minor victims, often engaging in sexually explicit conduct, to make the new victims think that they were chatting with another minor. Using these videos, conspirators coerced and enticed children to engage in sexually explicit activity on their own web cameras which the website automatically recorded.
Brain K. Hendrix joins eight co-conspirators, including Anthony Evans, 54, of Grahamstown, South Africa, who pleaded guilty in South Africa and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on May 29, 2015, and an extradition request remains pending.
Other co-conspirators include William J. Morgan, 36, of Essex, New York, who pleaded guilty on June 26, 2015, and was sentenced to 21 years in prison on September 18, 2015, Milton Smith Jr., 34, of Lorton, Virginia, who pleaded guilty on August 14, 2015, and sentencing is scheduled for January 22, 2016, James E. Hancock, 45, of Thomasville, Georgia, who pleaded guilty on December 29, 2015, and sentencing is scheduled for April 1, 2016, Christopher McNevin, 37, of Carlisle, Ohio, who pleaded guilty on August 21, 2015, and was sentenced to 19 years in prison on December 4, 2015, Carl Zwengel, 51, of Princeton, Illinois, who pleaded guilty on July 10, 2015, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison on October 2, 2015, Karlo Hitosis, 32, of Bronx, New York, who pleaded guilty on October 30, 2015, and sentencing is scheduled for February 5, 2016, and Stephen Funk, 35, of Milwaukee, who pleaded guilty on December 18, 2015, and sentencing is scheduled for March 25, 2016.
The investigation, Operation Subterfuge, identified more than 300 minor victims and an estimated 1,600 minors were lured to the websites. Law enforcement agencies have disabled both websites.
Key Facts
- State: Tennessee
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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