Texas Man Sentenced to 180 Months for Attempted Online Enticement

June 22, 2010 - RICHMOND, VA—Michael Paul Kruger, age 31, of Cason, Texas, was sentenced to 180 months in prison for attempted online enticement of a minor. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge James R. Spencer.

According to court documents, Kruger contacted a Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) special agent posing undercover as an eleven-year-old girl in a pre-teen Internet chat room. From September 2008 through October 2008, via Yahoo! Instant Messaging chats, Kruger initiated and continued an online relationship with the undercover agent (“undercover”), who Kruger at all times believed to be an eleven-year old, and who was located in Richmond, Virginia. In these chats Kruger discussed, in graphic detail, engaging in various sexual acts with this eleven-year-old persona. In October 2008, Kruger informed the undercover that he had imminent plans to travel from Missouri to Virginia for the purpose of having sex with her, though Kruger never followed through with the travel. In June 2009, while communicating with the undercover via instant messaging chat, Kruger appeared on his web cam, undressed from the waist down, and exposed his genital area while engaging in sexually explicit conduct on camera, afterwards asking the undercover if she would send nude photographs of herself to him. After his arrest, Kruger admitted to agents that he was attracted to underage females and would contact underage females via computer chats, emails, and by telephone, at times asking to meet them. He also admitted to self-sexual stimulation before persons who had identified themselves as minors via web cam, as well as to engaging in sexually explicit chats with them.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth C. Wu prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

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 Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.