Preston Man Pleads Guilty to Receiving Child Pornography

POCATELLO - D. Gregory Schvaneveldt, 40, of Preston, Idaho, pleaded guilty yesterday to receipt of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.  Schvaneveldt was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pocatello on November 25, 2014.

According to the plea agreement, an undercover special agent with Homeland Security Investigations was able to download 48 images and four videos of child pornography from Schvaneveldt’s shared computer files, after Schvaneveldt shared the password protecting the files with the agent during an online chat.  This led to a federal search warrant for Schvaneveldt’s residence, where law enforcement agents seized two computers, an external hard drive, and related equipment.  On the computers and external hard drive, law enforcement agents discovered approximately 1,638 images and 409 video files of suspected child pornography.  The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified victims in 502 of the images and in 57 documented “Series” of child pornography.

When interviewed by law enforcement, Schvaneveldt admitted that there was child pornography on the computers in his residence and “hundreds” of images on the external hard drive.  He stated that he had found child pornography on the Internet about a year prior and admitted saving images of child pornography from the Interne to his computer.  He also admitted to receiving child pornography through an online chat function.   

The charge of receipt of child pornography is punishable by not less than five, and up to 20, years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000.00, and up to a life term of supervised release.

Sentencing is set for October 27, 2015, before Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Pocatello.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and 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.”