SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Devin Nau, age 27, of Auburn, New York, pled guilty today before United States District Judge David N. Hurd to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of distribution of child pornography, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman, Matthew Scarpino, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Buffalo, New York Field Office, and New York State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen.
Nau, who remains detained pending his sentencing scheduled for August 11, 2022, faces at least 15 years and up to 100 years imprisonment on the charges. The Court will also impose a term of supervised release of between 5 years and life, and Nau will be required to register as a sex offender as a result of this conviction. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors.
As part of his guilty plea, Nau admitted to engaging in sex acts with two minor victims that he filmed and photographed using his cellular telephone. Nau further admitted that after recording the sex acts, he used a social media messaging application on his cellular telephone to distribute the depictions to other individuals over the internet.
Nau’s case was investigated by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Investigators of the New York State Police, Computer Crimes Unit (CCU), the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office and the Auburn City Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey J.L. Brown as part of Project Safe Childhood.
Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and is designed to marshal 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.