Charleston Man Sentenced to Ten Years in Federal Prison for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor Through Social Media App

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Samer Refaat Selwanes, 48, of Charleston, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for sexual exploitation of a minor.

Selwanes pleaded guilty in September 2022 to sexual exploitation of a minor. According to court documents and hearings, an adult female reported to a victim assistance organization that when she was thirteen she began communicating with another user on Facebook Messenger, and she was coerced by that user to create sexually explicit images of herself. Law enforcement agents were informed and subsequently identified the offender as Selwanes.

Agents thereafter searched Selwanes’s residence and digital devices, and they also conducted a review of the victim’s cell phone. The electronic forensic evidence showed that from June 2013 to August 2016, Selwanes, who falsely purported to be a minor himself, communicated with the victim, who was a minor at that time, on Facebook Messenger and coerced her to create and transmit to him images of herself engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

United States District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks sentenced Selwanes to 120 months in prison, to be followed by a life term of court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean H. Secor prosecuted the case.

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 epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, 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.

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