Home Miami Press Releases 2009 Lake Worth Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Internet Enticement of a Minor for Sexual Activity
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Lake Worth Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Internet Enticement of a Minor for Sexual Activity

U.S. Attorney’s Office August 19, 2009
  • Southern District of Florida (305) 961-9001

Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael J. Folmar, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, Quentin Aucoin, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Inspector General (OIG), Criminal Investigations Division (CID), and  Ric L. Bradshaw, Sheriff, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO), announced today that defendant John Gerard Krantz, of Lake Worth, FL, was sentenced on August 14, 2009 by U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks to 12 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, on charges of using the Internet to attempt to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.

On May 18, 2009, John Gerard Krantz, formerly an Information Technology Specialist at the Department of Veteran Affairs, Medical Center, pled guilty to one count of an Indictment, charging him with attempting to entice a minor, by computer via the Internet, to engage in illegal sexual activity, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2422(b).

This investigation began when PBSO received cybertip reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding a Lake Worth individual who was initiating contact with teenaged girls on MySpace.com. Within a four-month period, 16 cybertips were received complaining that the individual was creating MySpace profiles to make contact with underaged girls, exchange sexually explicit e-mails, and send sexually explicit pictures and/or webcam images of himself. MySpace.com reported these incidents to NCMEC. Investigators subsequently confirmed that Krantz was the individual engaging in this activity.

Based on this information, an undercover detective set up an online account posing as a 14-year-old girl.  Krantz contacted her and, despite her repeated indication that she was 14, expressed his desire to engage in online sexual activity with her. Specifically, Krantz  sent the undercover explicit sexual webcam videos of himself. Krantz warned the undercover not to tell anyone and instructed the undercover to delete their communications from the undercover’s computer to avoid discovery. Krantz also offered to buy a webcam so the undercover could send the same types of images to him.

After Krantz’s arrest, a subsequent search of his residence revealed that Krantz also possessed images of child pornography.

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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, PBSO and the Veterans Affairs  OIG -CID. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Shaniek Maynard and Marie Villafana.

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