A Minnesota man has been sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison for his role in managing a child sexual abuse website on the dark web, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Thomas Peter Katsampes, 52, of Eagan, was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for conspiracy to advertise and distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM). He was also ordered to pay $23,000 in restitution.
Katsampes pleaded guilty in February. According to court documents, he joined a dark web site dedicated to CSAM in 2022, where he advertised and distributed illegal material, including content depicting prepubescent children. He later became a staff member on the site, helping moderate posts, enforce rules for CSAM uploads, and instruct other users on how to share such content.
His sentencing was part of Operation Grayskull, a joint effort between the Department of Justice and the FBI that led to the dismantling of four dark web CSAM sites.
“This operation represents one of the most significant strikes ever made against online child exploitation networks,” said FBI Director Kash Patel in the release. “We’ve not only dismantled dangerous platforms on the dark web, but we’ve also brought key perpetrators to justice and delivered a powerful message: you cannot hide behind anonymity to harm children.”
To date, 18 offenders have been convicted, receiving a combined total of more than 300 years in prison.
“Thomas Peter Katsampes and his co-conspirators ran some of the darkweb’s most heinous networks, enabling horrific crimes against innocent victims, but Operation Grayskull has shut these sites down and delivered justice. We applaud the FBI and our international partners for their tireless work, and let this be a clear warning: we will relentlessly pursue and prosecute anyone engaged in such atrocities, no matter how they attempt to cover their tracks,” said U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida.
In addition to Katsampes, eight individuals have been convicted and sentenced in the Southern District of Florida for their involvement in running the primary site targeted by Operation Grayskull, and another nine have been convicted for their involvement with these websites in judicial districts around the country.
The post Eagan man sentenced to more than 20 years in major dark web child sexual abuse investigation appeared first on Alpha News MN.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Jenna Gloeb
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://alphanewsmn.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu. Follow Jonah on Twitter at @JTorgerud.
