Orlando, Florida – U.S. District Judge Wendy W. Berger today sentenced Xzavier Scholtens (20, Palm Bay) to 10 years in federal prison for using the internet to transport and possess videos depicting the sexual abuse of young children. Scholtens was also ordered to serve a 25-year term of supervised release and register as a sex offender.
Scholtens had been found guilty after a jury trial on April 28, 2021.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, this case arose from an online undercover operation conducted by agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in McAllen, Texas. The undercover operation targeted individuals who were using a particular social media platform on the internet to trade and distribute child sex abuse images and videos.
On November 19, 2019, Scholtens directly messaged one of the undercover agents and offered to “trade.” The undercover agent responded that Scholtens should send something first, in order to receive something in return. A short time later, Scholtens sent a hyperlink that led to a cloud storage folder that contained 12 videos. Each of the videos depicted the sexual abuse of young children whose ages ranged from 1 to 15 years old.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in McAllen, Texas and Rockledge, Florida and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Emily C. L. Chang.
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