Albany Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Amado Colon, age 21, of Albany, New York, pled guilty today to distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and Vadim D. Thomas, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea, Colon admitted that in June 2014, he posted child pornography images to an image-sharing web site based in Russia, allowing visitors to the site to view the images. He also received, from others, the username and password information for 8 Dropbox remote storage accounts, each of which contained hundreds of images of child pornography. Colon then took exclusive control over these accounts, and the child pornography in them, by changing the accounts’ usernames and passwords. Colon also admitted to possessing child pornography files on several electronic devices found in his house.

Colon, who was ordered to jail upon his plea of guilty, faces at least 5 years and up to 20 years in prison, to be followed by supervised release of at least 5 years and up to life, and a maximum $250,000 fine, when he is sentenced on November 20, 2017 by Senior United States District Judge Gary L. Sharpe. Sentences are imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the United States Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

This case was investigated by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael Barnett.