United States Attorney Scott N. Schools
  Northern District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           
October 30, 2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN   

          
Natalya.LaBauve@usdoj.gov 

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY PEDDLER SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS IN PRISON
Defendant’s Website Advertised and Sold Child Pornography

SAN JOSE – United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that Edward Aaron Harvey was sentenced yesterday to twelve years in prison for advertising child pornography and for transporting and possessing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.  The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Ronald M. Whyte, who also sentenced the defendant to a five-year period of supervised release following his release from prison.  The defendant, who is currently out of custody on a $50,000 bond, will begin serving the sentence on February 20, 2008.

Mr. Harvey, 38, of Canton, Michigan, pleaded guilty on April 16, 2007 to (1) advertising child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(3)(B); (2) transporting and shipping child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(1);  and (3)  possessing child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B).   

According to the plea agreement, Mr. Harvey admitted to the following facts.  From in or about October of 2003 through on or about September 2, 2004, Mr. Harvey knowingly and intentionally posted on the Internet, a child pornography website that advertised material containing obscene visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.  The website contained thousands of images of prepubescent boys and girls engaged in sexually explicit conduct with each other and with adults.  Harvey had obtained the images from other child pornography website on the Internet.   He created this child pornography website to make money, and used the Internet to collect payments for subscriptions to his website.  Harvey’s customers included individuals from the Northern District of California and other states, as well as from other countries.  After receiving payments from customers, Harvey e-mailed them the usernames, passwords, and a link to enter the child pornography website. 

In particular, Harvey admitted that one of his customers, a resident of San Jose, CA, had paid to subscribe to Harvey’s child pornography website from November 8 to December 8, 2003.   After receiving payment over the Internet, Harvey e-mailed that customer the username and password to access the child pornography website and to unzip the files containing images of child pornography.  That customer later did access the website and downloaded child pornography from the website to his home computer in San Jose, CA.  

Harvey admitted that by his actions in creating a child pornography website, soliciting people to join the website, collecting payments for subscriptions to the site, and providing paying customers with usernames and passwords to gain access to site, he had transported visual depictions of minors engaging in sexual conduct across state lines by means of computer.

Finally, Mr. Harvey also admitted that on September 2, 2004, he knowingly possessed on his home computer, matters which he knew contained visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.  Those images of child pornography, which he had obtained from other websites on the Internet, had been transported in interstate or foreign commerce prior to coming into his possession in Canton, Michigan.  He possessed those images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct with the intent of posting them on his website for distribution to customers who had paid to subscribe to his child pornography website.  Mr. Harvey waived venue in pleading to the possession charge in San Jose, CA.

Mr. Harvey, was charged by a Superseding Information filed on April 6, 2007 with three counts: Advertisement of Child Pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(3)(B)(i); Transportation and Attempted Transportation of Any Visual Depiction of a Minor Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(1); and Possession of  Matters Containing Any Visual Depiction Of a Minor Engaging in Sexually Explicit Conduct, in violation of18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4).  Under the plea agreement, Mr. Harvey pled guilty to all three counts.

Shawna Yen is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Legal Technician Tracey Andersen.  The prosecution is the result of a three-year  investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Further Information:

Case #: 05-00373

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can . 

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.  

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Natalya LaBauve at (415) 436-7055 or by email at Natalya.LaBauve@usdoj.gov .