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OAKLAND — A judge sentenced a 24-year-old Richmond man Thursday to a decade in prison over use of a messaging platform to sell and offer child pornography in exchange for gift cards, the U.S. Justice Department said.
According to a statement, Tariq Lamont Johnson pleaded guilty last June after admitting to using an account on Telegram “to sell visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct to another person,” as well as several interlinked Instagram accounts, in exchange for Amazon gift cards.
Johnson admitted that on Nov. 5, 2021, he told a person he later learned was a Homeland Security Investigations agent who had contacted him that he could provide images for money.
He then sold the agent access to a Telegram chatroom and a link to hosted material on a cloud-storage site in exchange for a $25 gift card.
Soon after, he sold the agent a second link to similar cloud-stored material, with “more than 600 depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct” including depictions of infants and toddlers, for a $45 gift card.
On March 4, 2022, the government charged Johnson with a count of distribution of child pornography.
U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar sentenced Johnson on Thursday to ten years in prison, as well as a ten-year term of supervised release.
Tigar also ordered a hearing on April 6, 2023, to look into restitution for Johnson’s victims.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
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