Press Release
FLORIDA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO TRAVELING TO THE PHILIPPINES FOR SEX TOURISM
December 22, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Donald Mathias, of Davie, Fl., pleaded guilty today to engaging in sex tourism in the Philippines, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jeffrey H. Sloman and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton.
Mathias, 64, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William Peter Dimitrouleas in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to four counts of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct. He was indicted on those charges on October 27, 2009.
As part of his plea agreement, Mathias admitted that from 2005 until December 2008 he communicated and arranged with the mother of two minor females located in the Philippines, to travel to the Philippines and engage in sexual conduct with the minors, and did so. During this time, Mathias and the mother exchanged hundreds of emails regarding sexual activity between Mathias and the minor females, recorded those sexual acts with a video camera, and payments to the mother in exchange for the sexual acts.
Mathias traveled to the Philippines in April 2007 and again in December 2007 and engaged in sexual conduct with the minors on those trips, and recorded those acts. Mathias also made the minors sign a contract in December 2007 requiring the minors to be his sex slaves. Money transfer and email records show that Mathias sent thousands of dollars to the mother between 2005 and December 2008. Mathias traveled to the Philippines again in December 2008 to engage in sexual conduct with the minors again, however Filipino law enforcement detained Mathias and he was not successful in meeting the minors. On October 14, 2009, the Defendant was arrested by U.S. law enforcement in Miami, Florida.
As part of the plea agreement, the defendant and the Government both agreed to recommend a sentence of twenty years imprisonment and a lifetime period of supervised release. The defendant also agreed to pay $200,000 in restitution to the victims of his crimes located in the Philippines, and agreed to transfer his real property to the United States in order to satisfy the restitution.
Sentencing has been set for March 2, 2010. At sentencing, Mathias faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine and the possibility of a lifetime period of supervised release.
This case was investigated by ICE’s Office of Investigations in Miami and the United States Postal Inspection Service, with assistance from the Philippines Department of Justice. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Anitha Ibrahim of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Rodriguez of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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