Press Release
Bridgeport Man Sentenced to Prison for Child Exploitation Offense
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Connecticut
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MICHAEL NASTU, 63, of Bridgeport, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to 18 month of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for a child exploitation offense.
According to court documents and statements made in court, in March 2021, Nastu, using the Kik social media application, initiated a chat with an FBI Online Covert Employee (“OCE”) who was posing as a 14-year-old girl from Connecticut. Between March 31 and June 25, 2021, Nastu sent the OCE sexually explicit messages and several pictures and videos of male genitalia, and he attempted to entice the OCE to send him child pornography in return. Although they had multiple text exchanges about meeting in person, Nastu never travelled to meet the OCE.
Nastu was arrested on June 30, 2021. On September 22, 2022, he pleaded guilty to attempted transfer of obscene materials to a minor.
Nastu, who is released on a $100,000 bond, is required to report to prison on March 13.
This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda S. Oakes and Nancy V. Gifford through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.
Updated January 11, 2023
Topic
Project Safe Childhood
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