Papillion Man Sentenced for Receipt of Child Pornography

Acting United States Attorney Steven Russell announced the Ramzi Yassine, 44, of Papillion, Nebraska, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. for receipt of child pornography. Yassine was sentenced to 96 months’ imprisonment and was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release, Yassine will begin a five-year term of supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender.

On May 1, 2017, the Nebraska State Patrol received a cyber-tip from an internet website known as Chatstep.  Chatstep reported that one of its users had an account that uploaded an image identified as child pornography.  Chatstep captured the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the identified user that had uploaded the image of child pornography.  Law enforcement obtained information related to the IP addresses, which ultimately identified Yassine’s residence as the subscriber.  On October 4, 2018, law enforcement executed a search of Yassine’s residence and seized computers.  Forensic analysis of the computers found images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.  Some of the minors were under the age of 12. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.