Branchburg Man Ran Child Porn Site, Filmed Minors on Web Cams: U.S. Attorney

Branchburg, NJ -- A Branchburg man, who ran a child porn web site from his home, appeared in federal court Thursday, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Jonathan Soto, 26, was arraigned before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court and pleaded not guilty to both counts of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to produce child pornography and possession of child pornography. He was previously arrested and charged by federal complaint on April 16, 2015, and remains in federal custody pending the charges.

According to the indictment:

From July 2014 through April 2015, Soto administered and operated a website designed to produce child pornography by tricking minor victims into engaging in sexually explicit activity on web cameras,

Users of the website created false profiles on popular social media websites purporting to be young children, aged from about 10 to 16.

Using these false profiles, the users chatted with actual minor children and lured the minor victims to other websites to engage in private chats. Once in a private chat room, users then persuaded child victims to engage in sexually explicit activity. Unbeknownst to the victims, when they engaged in sexually explicit activity, they were secretly recorded, and those videos were shared with other users on Soto’s website.

FBI special agents executed a search warrant at Soto’s residence on or about April 15, 2015, and discovered computer equipment containing multiple videos of child pornography which had been downloaded from Soto’s website.

The conspiracy to produce child pornography count carries a minimum penalty of fifteen years in prison, a maximum potential penalty of thirty years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. The possession of child pornography count carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.