Loan Officer Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Entice a 15-Year-Old Girl for Sexual Activity
U.S. Attorney’s Office December 02, 2009 |
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that LUIS ANTONIO REBUTTI, 43, pleaded guilty yesterday before United States District Judge CATHY SEIBEL in White Plains federal court to a charge of using the Internet to attempt to entice, induce, and persuade an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old girl to meet REBUTTI for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.
According to the Information and statements made during REBUTTI's guilty plea:
In early January 2009, REBUTTI, using instant messaging, contacted an America Online profile maintained by an undercover detective with the Westchester County Police Department. In the profile, the detective posed as a 15-year-old girl. Over the course of several weeks, the defendant communicated, using instant messaging and e-mails, with the detective. During those communications, REBUTTI attempted to persuade, induce, and entice the undercover detective to engage in sexual activity with him. REBUTTI told the detective to pretend that she was 18 years old, instead of 15. On January 20, 2009, the defendant went to the Eldorado Diner on the border of Elmsford and Tarrytown, New York, to meet the 15-year-old girl for the purposes of engaging in sexual activity with her, and was arrested.
REBUTTI is charged with one count of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity and faces of a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 120 months in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge SEIBEL on March 12, 2010.
Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Westchester County Department of Public Safety.
Assistant United States Attorneys SARAH R. KRISSOFF and MARCIA S. COHEN are in charge of the prosecution.