United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Charles Eberhardt, 56, of Imperial, Nebraska, was sentenced on January 29, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to four years, nine months in prison by United States District Judge John M. Gerrard, for possession of child pornography. After his release from prison, Eberhardt will be required to serve a 10-year term of supervised release and be registered as a sex offender.
In September of 2014, Xoom.com, an online international money transfer service, notified Yahoo! that a number of Yahoo! accounts were engaged in the sale of child exploitation material. The investigation determined that several email accounts, operating overseas, were believed to be selling images, video and live-streamed sexual abuse. Eberhardt was found to be one of the persons expressing an interest in young children and appeared to be purchasing images, video, or live streams of child exploitation material from the seller account(s). Evidence showed that at least one wire transfer was sent by Eberhardt to the Philippines. There are also chat logs showing communication with another person in Nebraska about having sex with minors.
On June 2, 2015, a search warrant was issued on Eberhardt’s residence and he admitted to accessing child pornography websites using the Internet. The forensic investigation of the equipment listed in the Forfeiture Allegation revealed approximately 43 images of child pornography, including visual depictions of prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
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 United States Attorneys’ 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.