Rochester Man Sentenced For Lying To An FBI Agent

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Michael Beers, 68, of Rochester, NY, who was convicted of making a false statement to an FBI special agent, was sentenced to serve 60 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle P. Rossi, who handled the case, stated that in February 2017, the FBI conducted a child pornography investigation during which an undercover agent downloaded four videos of child pornography directly from a device using an IP address belonging to the defendant at his residence on Lake Avenue in Rochester.

On March 10, 2017, the FBI executed a search warrant at Beers’ residence. Agents located a computer which contained file titles consistent with child pornography. The defendant was questioned regarding his use of the computer, at which point Beers willfully made materially false statements to FBI Agents. Specifically, the defendant denied having access to or using the computer, denied knowing the password for the computer, and denied that child pornography had been accessed, inadvertently or otherwise, on the computer. In reality, the defendant used the computer, personally set the password for computer, and had seen child pornography on the computer.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Gary Loeffert.