Syracuse Man Sentenced to 62 Years in Federal Prison for Child Exploitation Crimes

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Benjamin Munson, age 33, of Syracuse, was sentenced today to serve 720 months (60 years) in federal prison following his earlier plea of guilty to a 13-Count Indictment charging him with six counts of sexual exploitation of an infant, four counts of distributing child pornography, two counts of possessing child pornography, and one count of committing a felony offense against a minor as a registered sex offender.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made the announcement. 

In his previous guilty plea Munson admitted that while on supervised release for a 2010 federal conviction for distribution and possession of child pornography, and while required to register as a sex offender, he befriended another sex offender who allowed Munson to babysit the other offender’s infant daughter.  Munson admitted that on at least six separate occasions he sexually abused the infant, produced images and videos of the abuse, and uploaded the depictions to an internet trading group he administered. 

Of the over twenty child pornography trading groups Munson admitted to administering, the group to which he uploaded the images of the infant was exclusively dedicated to new content, and others on the site were required by Munson to also produce and upload new sexually explicit content of children in order to join. 

Munson’s crimes were discovered on the internet by FBI and Australian law enforcement authorities in August of 2022, and within days the FBI in Syracuse arrested Munson and rescued the infant.  Munson was found in possession of several unauthorized electronic devices on which he possessed 35,139 images and 4,918 videos of child pornography.  In addition to images and videos of the infant, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified 12,526 of the images and 1,258 of the recovered video files as depicting 457 separate children whose images are in their database of known victims. 

In addition to the 60-year sentence, Munson was sentenced to a consecutive 2-year term of imprisonment for violating the conditions of his supervised release from his prior offense. 

Munson was also ordered to pay over $111,000 in restitution to the victims of his crimes, including the infant and the victims depicted in the other child pornography he possessed.  He was ordered to forfeit the electronic media used to commit the offenses and to pay a special assessment of $1,300.  Munson will be placed on supervision for the remainder of his life when released from prison, and will continue to be required to register as a sex offender.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force and the New York State Police.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa M. Fletcher, Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the Northern District of New York, prosecuted the case.

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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.