Richard Nejame, age 27, of Schenectady, New York, was charged today with sexual exploitation of a child and communicating a threat to injure.

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

The criminal complaint alleges that between about October 2022 and May 1, 2023, Nejame communicated with several girls over a messaging application.  During one series of communications, Nejame threatened a 14-year-old girl in Florida that if she did not take nude pictures of herself and send them to Nejame, bad people would come and harm her, or words to that effect.  In another series of communications on the same messaging application, Nejame persuaded and coerced a 15-year-old girl in Virginia to take sexually explicit still images and videos of herself and send the images and videos to Nejame.  The charges in the complaint are merely accusations.  Nejame is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. 

If convicted of sexual exploitation of a child, Nejame would face at least 15 years and up to 30 years in prison. The interstate communication of a threat charge carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

Nejame had his initial appearance today and was ordered detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for May 3, 2023 before United States Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart.

The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force is investigating this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Belliss is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood.   Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.

Original source can be found here.