FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, July 30, 2021

Defendant Apprehended in National Investigation

            WASHINGTON – Brian Kampel, 44, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for accessing child pornography, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, and Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Washington, D.C.

            Kampel pleaded guilty earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  He was sentenced by the Honorable Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. Following his prison term, he will be placed on supervised release for the rest of his life. In addition, he will be required to register as a sex offender for 15 years following his release from prison. Judge Friedrich also ordered Kampel to pay $39,000 in restitution to his victims.

            According to the government’s evidence, Kampel was identified as part of a national investigation, conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), into a password-protected, fee-based website, that advertised child sexual abuse material. 

            After gaining access to the website, an individual could pay to purchase and download child pornography.  This commercial website advertised that it offered users, like Kampel, 600,000 images and 400 hours of video.  Kampel paid to purchase and download child pornography in August of 2017.

            Following a search of Kampel’s residence, in September of 2019, law enforcement found a laptop computer with over 1,000 images depicting the sexual abuse of children as young as infants and toddlers.  The forensic evidence in the case determined that Kampel had been accessing, downloading, and possessing child sexual abuse material for over eight years.

            This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative. Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

            In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips and Special Agent in Charge Villanueva commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations.  They also commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy E. Larson, who prosecuted the case.