West Hempstead Man Pleads Guilty To Sexual Exploitation, Child Pornography Charges, Prosecutors Say

BROOKLYN, NY — A West Hempstead man could serve 25 to 70 years in jail after pleading guilty to charges of sexually exploiting a child and possessing child pornography, prosecutors said Friday.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, 27-year-old Justin Poon entered guilty pleas before Judge James Cho at the federal court in Brooklyn Friday, and could be forced to pay restitution to the victims of the crimes in addition to serving his jail sentence. Prosecutors said Poon was already registered as a sex offender in New York when the crimes were committed.

“The defendant is a depraved sextortionist and danger to the community who produced, collected, and distributed child pornography, and terrorized dozens of victims, including minors,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said. “His conduct reflects a total disregard for the trauma he inflicted on his victims and their families. Although today’s guilty plea cannot undo the harm that Poon has caused to his victims, it does ensure that he will be incarcerated for decades.”

Prosecutors said Poon engaged in a pattern of exploitative behavior between December of 2018 and his December 2023 arrest, during which time he exploited underaged girls to create child pornography.

“Poon induced a 16 year-old victim to create sexually explicit images of herself according to his specifications and then sold those images on the internet,” prosecutors said. “Poon also traveled across state lines to engage in sexual activity with another 16 year-old victim and created sexually explicit videos of that victim.”

During the same time period, prosecutors said Poon began running an extortion scheme, deceiving minors to gain access to sexually explicit images and videos of them, “including by pretending to be Snapchat customer support to trick them into sharing their passwords so that he could access private materials in their accounts.”

Once he obtained the explicit images and videos, prosecutors said Poon threatened the minors, saying that he would, “share them directly with his victims’ friends and family if they did not comply with his demands for payment or additional sexually explicit materials. When one of his 16-year-old victims pleaded with him not to ‘ruin [her] life,’ because she ‘need[ed] to go to university,’ the [Poon] responded: ‘I don’t care.’”

Prosecutors said a search warrant for Poon’s electronic devices and DropBox accounts revealed child pornography for at least 50 different victims. This is not the first time Poon has been in court for inappropriate conduct with minors; he was convicted of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old victim in 2021.

“Already a convicted child predator, the defendant continued to exploit minors through extortion and production of sexually explicit videos,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle said. “The FBI/NYPD Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Task Force will continue to pursue those who seek to harm our children and ensure they face justice.”