Simi Valley Man Sentenced to 42 Months for Possession of Child Pornography

Law Enforcement Partners with Industry

A Simi Valley man who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography was sentenced Friday to three-and-a-half years in prison by Judge Philip Gutierrez, announced André Birotte Jr., the United States Attorney in Los Angeles; and Steven Martinez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

Lee Michael Robertson, 31, was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2009 after he was identified as a subscriber to a website that sold child pornography through an initiative known as the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography (FCACP). The FCACP membership is comprised of banks, credit card companies, third party payment companies, and Internet service providers dedicated to fighting commercial child pornography on the Internet by preventing illegal websites from using their systems or products to receive customer payments.

The FBI's Innocent Images Unit and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement collaborated with the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography to identify commercial child pornography websites and its users.

During the course of this initiative, Robertson was identified as a subscriber to website purveyors of child pornography.

In December 2009, Robertson pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. On Friday, Robertson was sentenced to 42 months' imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, with sex offender conditions, and ordered to pay $5,000 to two known victims of the documented child pornography series.

This case was investigated by the FBI's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force in Ventura, which is comprised of multiple agencies, to include a full-time detective with the Thousand Oaks Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. In addition, the Southern California High Tech Task Force conducted the forensic examination of the seized digital media in this case after a federal search warrant was executed at Robertson's residence and a large amount of child pornography was discovered. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office.