09/21/2009
Portland Businessman Sentenced to Four Years in Federal Prison in Child Pornography Case
Portland, Ore. – A Portland businessman was sentenced to prison this morning in federal court following his plea of guilty to possessing child pornography. William Kent Wishart, 67, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Garr M. King to four years in prison followed by a ten-year term of supervised release, and was fined $12,500. The fine was ordered remitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia. Wishart, who has been out of custody pending sentencing, must report to begin serving his sentence on January 21, 2010.
The charge against Wishart arose from a nationwide undercover investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which focused on commercial Internet web sites that offered images of child pornography to paid subscribers. The investigation revealed that Wishart paid for subscription access to at least one commercial child pornography web site. Wishart eventually admitted to paying for subscription access to commercial child pornography web sites, and to downloading images and videos of child pornography. Child pornography was found on Wishart’s home computer, an external hard drive at his residence, and a laptop computer he used at work.
Wishart is the founder and president of Graphic Sciences, Inc. (“GSI”), which, according to sentencing materials he filed, produces environmentally friendly inks and coatings for the flexographic printing industry. GSI employs approximately 70 full- and part-time employees in offices in a number of states and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
In imposing the sentence, Judge King balanced Wishart’s background and lack of criminal history against what he described as the “evils” of child pornography. At the sentencing hearing, Wishart acknowledged that child pornography is “terrible stuff,” and expressed remorse for his conduct
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
This case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and was prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Gary Sussman, Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the District of Oregon U.S. Attorney’s Office.
