ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Faisal Hashime, 20, of Springfield, Va., was sentenced to 180 months in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for posing online as an attractive teen girl to entice minor boys to produce sexually explicit images, several of which he sent to others online.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and John P. Torres, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington, D.C., made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

On Sept. 20, 2012, Hashime was convicted at trial of three counts of production of child pornography. On Sept. 12, 2012, Hashime pled guilty possessing and receiving child pornography.

According to court documents and evidence at the trial, the investigation into Hashime began after he distributed images of child pornography to an undercover agent via e-mail.  After executing a search warrant on Hashime’s e-mail account, law enforcement recovered numerous e-mails where Hashime pretended to be an attractive young female named “Tracy” while communicating with minor boys throughout the country he met on the internet.  While acting as “Tracy,” Hashime flirted, developed intimate friendships, engaged in explicit online conversation with them, and – often over the course of months – requested, cajoled, seduced, guilted, and encouraged them to take and send pictures of their naked bodies and genitalia.  After obtaining several images of boys’ genitalia, Hashime then distributed several of the images to others online.

When law enforcement executed a search warrant on Hashime’s residence, he admitted to being “Tracy” online.

The investigation was conducted by ICE HSI in Washington, D.C.  Assistant United States Attorney Alexander T.H. Nguyen and Special Assistant United States Attorney Maureen C. Cain are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

This case was 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 the 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.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.

 

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