Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
WASHINGTON — A federal jury convicted a Minnesota man yesterday for advertising, distributing, and possessing material depicting the sexual abuse of children.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Craig James Myran, 47, of Bemidji, was an active participant on a website on the dark web that was dedicated to discussing and trafficking in child sexual abuse material. For years, Myran used an account with a unique username to make over a thousand posts on this site, including at least one post in which he requested specific files of child sexual abuse material from other users, and another post in which he distributed files of child sexual abuse material to other users. FBI special agents executed a search warrant on Myran’s apartment in Bemidji on Dec. 8, 2022, where they found numerous hard drives and a cell phone. A forensic examination of these devices uncovered evidence tying Myran to his unique account on the dark web site — including files of the child sexual abuse material that he shared and requested on the website, as well as a message directed to his unique alias — and thousands of other images of child sexual abuse material.
A federal jury found Myran guilty after a three-day trial on two counts of advertising child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography. Myran faces a minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison on each count of advertising child pornography, a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the count of distributing child pornography, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the count of possessing child pornography. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger for the District of Minnesota; and Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. of the FBI Minneapolis Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI Minneapolis Field Office is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney William G. Clayman of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Green for the District of Minnesota are prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.