PROVIDENCE – A North Kingstown man today admitted to a federal judge that he transferred provocative material to another person online, after the other person represented that he was a child, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.
Neil Streich, 59, whose federal jury trial was scheduled to begin today, pleaded guilty to importation or transportation of obscene matters.
Streich admitted that in March 2020, he transferred three sexually provocative videos of himself via Kik, an Internet-based text and social media platform, to a person who represented himself to be a 10-year-old girl. The person Streich was communicating with was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent based in Pennsylvania and assigned to the FBI Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force.
According to charging documents, Streich communicated online with the person he believed to be the young girl for about a week before transmitting the obscene materials to her. At the time of Streich’s arrest, FBI agents, with the assistance of the North Kingstown Police Department and the United States Marshals Service, executed a court-authorized search of Streich’s residence and seized electronic devices owned by Streich. A forensic examination of the devices revealed images and videos from Streich’s communications with the undercover agent.
Streich is scheduled to be sentenced on January 31, 2023. The defendant’s sentence will be determined by a federal district judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys G. Michael Seaman and Milind Shah.
###