{"id":8716318,"date":"2023-01-13T21:05:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T05:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/?p=8716318"},"modified":"2023-01-16T16:20:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T00:20:36","slug":"richmond-man-gets-prison-for-selling-child-porn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/2023\/01\/13\/richmond-man-gets-prison-for-selling-child-porn\/","title":{"rendered":"Richmond man gets prison for selling child porn"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND — A judge sentenced a 24-year-old Richmond man Thursday to a decade in prison over use of a messaging platform to sell and offer child pornography in exchange for gift cards, the U.S. Justice Department said.<\/p>\n

According to a statement, Tariq Lamont Johnson pleaded guilty last June after admitting to using an account on Telegram “to sell visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct to another person,” as well as several interlinked Instagram accounts, in exchange for Amazon gift cards.<\/p>\n

Johnson admitted that on Nov. 5, 2021, he told a person he later learned was a Homeland Security Investigations agent who had contacted him that he could provide images for money.<\/p>\n

He then sold the agent access to a Telegram chatroom and a link to hosted material on a cloud-storage site in exchange for a $25 gift card.<\/p>\n

Soon after, he sold the agent a second link to similar cloud-stored material, with “more than 600 depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct” including depictions of infants and toddlers, for a $45 gift card.<\/p>\n

On March 4, 2022, the government charged Johnson with a count of distribution of child pornography.<\/p>\n