- Timothy DeFoggi was found guilty Tuesday on all seven child-porn criminal charges he faced in federal court
- Justice Dept says he 'accessed' and 'solicited child pornography ... [and] expressed an interest in the violent rape and murder of children'
- DeFoggi 'even suggested meeting one member in person,' according to the DOJ, 'to fulfill their mutual fantasies to violently rape and murder children'
- The former cyber security pro was listed near the top of the HHS organization chart in a document describing budget requests for 2014
- His screen names 'F***Christ' and 'PT***eater' were mentioned repeatedly in court and are part of the public record
Timothy
DeFoggi, a former acting director of cyber security for the U.S.
Department of health and Human services, was convicted Tuesday on
federal charges of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise,
conspiracy to advertise and distribute child pornography, and accessing a
computer with intent to view child pornography.
A
Nebraska jury handed down seven separate guilty verdicts following a
four-day trial, in connection with his membership in a child pornography
website operated by Aaron McGrath, 31, before his arrest, conviction
and sentencing to a 20-year prison term.
MailOnline
has confirmed through court records that while DeFoggi was a resident
of the Washington, D.C. bedroom community of Germantown, Maryland, he
used two screen aliases to communicate on the underground child-porn site: 'F***Christ' and 'PT***eater'
The
name of the website was often redacted from court filings, and
MailOnline has opted not to print it. But federal prosecutors mentioned
DeFoggi's screen names often in court.
 |
| Former-HHS-cyber-security-chief-convicted-CHILD-PORN-case-using-screen-names-F-Christ-PT-eater-underground-website.html |
 |
| This chart, from the HHS fiscal 2014 'Justification of Estimates for
Appropriations Committees' related to the 'Public Health and Social
Services Emergency Fund,' shows that during 2013 Timothy DeFoggi was in
charge of operating-system security on all of HHS computers
In one
court filing, his lawyer conceded that 'In the "About Me" section of
username "f***christ's" profile on "Website A," it says: "Have many
perversions. Contact me for fantasy chat."
The
attorney argued, unsuccessfully, that DeFoggi and his co-defendant,
Zackary Austin, were engaging in harmless online fantasies.
'According to evidence presented at trial,' the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Tuesday,
'DeFoggi registered as a website member on March 2, 2012, and
maintained his membership and activity until Dec. 8, 2012, when the
website was taken down by the FBI.'
'Through
the website, DeFoggi accessed child pornography, solicited child
pornography from other members, and exchanged private messages with
other members where he expressed an interest in the violent rape and
murder of children.'
'DeFoggi
even suggested meeting one member in person,' the DOJ statement added,
'to fulfill their mutual fantasies to violently rape and murder
children.'
The
grand jury's description of the crimes was so graphic that a judge
agreed to order the redaction – the blacking out – of entire pages on
the government's publicly accessible computer servers.
McGrath, a
Nebraska native, ran a trio of child-porn websites through TOR, 'the
onion router,' an open network within the Internet that allows users to
hide from network surveillance and surf online without leaving digital
footprints.
The
FBI deployed a custom-made software program in a 2012 investigation it
dubbed 'Operation Torpedo,' scouring every so-called '.onion' website it
could find and determining which of them were related to illegal
activity.
McGrath
operated two of his sites on the network server 'farm' where he worked
by day, and operated a third from his home computer.
Federal
investigators found that he had left his administrator password blank
on one of the child pornography sites. They quickly began collecting
information that could identify the computers that were accessing it.
One
of the sites was a child-porn Facebook knockoff frequented by DeFoggi,
56, and another two dozen defendants the government identified.
A federal grand jury indicted the former government computer security honcho on March 20, 2013. He faces sentencing in November.
DeFoggi's name appears on an HHS organizational chart in a planning document related to the agency's fiscal year 2014 budget request.
The
document describes him as being in charge of 'OS IT Security
Operations,' reporting directly to HHS Chief Information Security
Officer Kevin Charest.
HHS
did not immediately respond to questions about when he left his job,
and whether he was on the government's payroll while his charges were
pending.
Other
defendants snared by Operation Torpedo are named in court documents as
Kirk Cottom, Vincent Diberardino, Jason Flanary, Michael Huyck, Brandon
Moore, David William Peer, Russell Glenn Pierce, Kevin Pitman, Gary
Reibert, John Sebes, Thomas Spencer and Joshua Welch.
The FBI said Tuesday that DeFoggi was the sixth to be successfully prosecuted.
When
he ordered DeFoggi held without bail in May 2013, U.S. Magistrate
Judge Thomas D. Thalken noted that he appeared 'to have a mental
condition which may affect whether the defendant will appear' if he were
given bond.
It's not clear what that condition is, or whether it will have an impact on sentencing.
John
S. Berry Jr. and Justin B. Kalemkiarian, his two current attorneys in
Lincoln, Nebraska, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
|
This is nice post.I like it so much .The security service is cyber security chief convicted case.
ReplyDelete