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Press Release

Sacramento Man Charged with Production and Distribution of Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment today against Mark Corum, 60, of Sacramento, adding four counts of production of child pornography to the original indictment brought in December 2016, which charged him with one count of distribution of child pornography, United States Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, Corum engaged in conversations with various Skype users in the Philippines in which he instructed the other parties to perform sexual acts on children while he watched on live webcam. Corum sent the persons located in the Philippines payments via money transmittal services in exchange for them performing the sexual acts he requested on the children and transmitting the images to him via webcam. In addition, on June 23, 2016, Corum transmitted images of prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct to another person via the internet.

This case was investigated by the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, a federally and state-funded task force managed by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department with agents from federal, state, and local agencies. The Sacramento ICAC investigates online child exploitation crimes, including child pornography, enticement, and sex trafficking. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine T. Lydon is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Corum faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison on the distribution of child pornography count and maximum statutory penalties of 30 years in prison on each of the four production of child pornography counts, as well as a maximum statutory fine of $250,000 on each count. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.

Updated May 25, 2017

Topic
Project Safe Childhood
Press Release Number: 2:16-cr-240 KJM