Missouri Man Who Tried to Sell ‘Spy Videos’ of Teens Sentenced to 17 ½ Years in Prison

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Thursday sentenced a man from Lincoln County, Missouri caught trying to make and sell “spy videos” of teenage girls to 17 and one-half years in prison. 

James Dean Kukan, 39, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in August to two counts of attempted production of child pornography. He admitted producing “spy videos” of two teenage girls in the bathroom using a hidden camera between October 2021 and February 2022. He also admitted trying to sell those videos online via Kik, Snapchat, Telegram and WhatsApp. 

On Feb. 14, 2022, Kukan entered a Kik group and began communicating with an undercover FBI agent. He offered to sell videos of the teens for between $60 and $100, his plea says. 

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman prosecuted the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.