Illinois
A man was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Illinois to 12 years and seven months in prison for knowingly receiving child sexual abuse material over the internet.
According to court documents and statements made in connection with the sentencing, Kory R. Schulein, 37, of Sparta, pleaded guilty to knowingly receiving child pornography over the internet.
According to court documents, Schulein first came to the attention to law enforcement in 2018 during an FBI investigation of child pornography on the dark web.
Agents were able to track his internet protocol address and executed a federal search warrant at his home.
Schulein served as a moderator of a dark website dedicated to child exploitation and had been an active participant on other sites.
Schulein had posted 13,733 messages, many of which included links to child exploitation images and videos. Schulein also collected and stored over 9,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material on an encrypted hard drive.
The FBI’s Springfield Field Office investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Marshals Service.
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.