Tampa Man Charged With Enticing Children On Video Game System To Create And Send Child Pornography

Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announces that Kyle Wallace (22, Tampa) has been arrested and charged by a federal criminal complaint with production and attempted production of child pornography and possession of child pornography. If convicted, Wallace faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 15 years, and up to 30 years in federal prison, and a potential lifetime of supervision.

According to the complaint, on November 29, 2018, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Wallace’s home in Tampa. On Wallace’s phone, agents found at least four child-pornography images depicting two different male minors. Wallace admitted that he had persuaded those minors to send him child pornography by, among other things, offering them money and gift cards or credits for games on the Xbox Live video game system. Wallace further admitted to sexually molesting one of the two boys, when the child was only eleven or twelve years old.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Jennifer L. Peresie.

It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

A criminal complaint is only an allegation and every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.