Patrick Falte, Child Exploitation, Tennessee 2018

A Tennessee man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in a child exploitation enterprise on the Tor Network.

Patrick D. Falte, 29, of Franklin, Tennessee, was sentenced on Friday by Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw of the Middle District of Tennessee. Falte was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release.

Falte pleaded guilty in June 2018 to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, three counts of advertising child pornography, and three counts of distributing child pornography. His co-conspirators, Benjamin A. Faulkner, Andrew R. Leslie, and Brett A. Bedusek, were also sentenced for their roles in the child exploitation enterprise.

Faulkner, 28, of Ontario, Canada, was sentenced to 35 years in prison, while Leslie, 24, of Middleburg, Florida, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Bedusek, 35, of Cudahy, Wisconsin, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The 'Giftbox Exchange' website, created by Falte in 2015, was a highly sophisticated Tor-network-based website dedicated to the sexual abuse of children. The site had over 72,000 registered users and 56,000 posts before it was shut down in November 2016.

Faulkner, who also became an administrator of the site, created and administered another Tor network-based hidden service website dedicated to child sexual exploitation, which grew to host over 200,000 users. Leslie, in addition to his membership on the Giftbox Exchange, ran another Tor network-based hidden service website that allowed images and videos depicting graphic and violent sexual abuse of children.

'The Giftbox Exchange proved a haven for sophisticated predators to produce and spread deplorable depictions of child sexual abuse,' said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Criminal Division. 'These sentences affirm that layers of anonymity on the dark web will not prevent the U.S. Attorney's Office from identifying and holding accountable those who exploit children.'

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/four-men-sentenced-prison-engaging-child-exploitation-enterprise-tor-network