Richmond Man Sentenced to 60 Months for Attempted Receipt of Child Pornography

RICHMOND, VA—Steven Gerstenfeld, age 48, of Richmond, Virginia, was sentenced today to 60 months’ in prison following his guilty plea to attempted receipt of child pornography.  United States District Judge Henry E. Hudson imposed the sentence.  Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Jennifer Love, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Richmond Field Office; and James Dinkins, Special Agent in Charge, Washington DC/Virginia, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), made the announcement. 

Gerstenfeld was the head coach for the men’s tennis team at the University of Richmond when he came to the attention of law enforcement during the course of an ICE undercover initiative known as Project Flicker.  In April 2006, ICE initiated the Project Flicker investigation to examine a criminal organization operating and controlling numerous commercial child exploitation websites.  The investigation determined that the same criminal organization was operating essentially a two-tiered child pornography distribution system.  Numerous websites were set up to advertise access to member-restricted websites.  From these advertising sites users would pay for access, usually through the services of PayPal, to obtain unlimited access for one month to a member-restricted website containing child pornography images.  Following the PayPal transaction, members were emailed a user name and password to gain access to the restricted website. 

Federal investigators obtained records from PayPal indicating that from October 2006, to March 2007 Gerstenfeld subscribed at least six times to member-restricted websites that the ICE investigation confirmed were distributing child pornography.  For those PayPal transactions Gerstenfeld provided his email account at the University of Richmond.  On October 23, 2007, investigators with ICE, the FBI and the University of Richmond Police Department executed a federal search warrant on the defendant’s office at the University, where they seized the defendant’s computer.  Later forensic analysis of this computer revealed evidence of numerous images of child pornography on the defendant’s computer.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Assistant United States Attorney Brian R. Hood prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.