Syracuse Man Sentenced to 62 Years for Child Exploitation

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Benjamin Munson, age 33, of Syracuse, was sentenced today to serve 720 months (60 years) in federal prison for a string of heinous child exploitation crimes.

Munson was found guilty of six counts of sexual exploitation of an infant, four counts of distributing child pornography, two counts of possessing child pornography, and one count of committing a felony offense against a minor as a registered sex offender.

The investigation began when FBI and Australian law enforcement authorities discovered Munson’s crimes on the internet in August 2022. Within days, the FBI in Syracuse arrested Munson and rescued the infant victim.

Munson was found in possession of several unauthorized electronic devices containing 35,139 images and 4,918 videos of child pornography, including images of the infant victim. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified 12,526 of the images and 1,258 of the recovered video files as depicting 457 separate children whose images are in their database of known victims.

In addition to the 60-year sentence, Munson was sentenced to a consecutive 2-year term of imprisonment for violating the conditions of his supervised release from his prior offense. Munson was also ordered to pay over $111,000 in restitution to the victims of his crimes, including the infant and the victims depicted in the other child pornography he possessed.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force and the New York State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa M. Fletcher, Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the Northern District of New York, prosecuted the case.

Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.