Enlisted Sailor Stationed in Louisiana Sentenced to 38 Years for Production of Files Depicting Sexual Victimization of Children

Louisiana – An enlisted sailor from New York stationed in Louisiana has been sentenced in a federal court in Louisiana to thirty-eight years in prison for producing files depicting the sexual victimization of children, and extortion.

On Thursday, February 9, 2023, U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that Biagio William Ambrosino, age 20, originally from Queens, New York, who was an enlisted sailor stationed in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, was sentenced on February 7, 2023, by United States District Judge Wendy B. Vitter to 360 months as to Count 1, 240 months as to Count 3, with 100 months to be served consecutively, for a total of 460 months in prison, supervised release for a term of Life, a $200 mandatory special assessment fee, and registration as a sex offender.

The Court also scheduled a hearing to determine the amount of restitution Ambrosino will owe to the victims for May 2, 2023, at 12:00pm. Ambrosino previously pleaded guilty to one count of producing images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2251(a) (Count 1) and transmitting interstate threats for the purpose of extorting a thing of value, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(b) (Count 2).

According to court documents, the allegations derive from Ambrosino’s development of an exploitative and extortionate scheme to entice persons to provide him with sexually explicit content between August 2020 and January 2022. Ambrosino employed a variety of tactics based on the victims’ ages, cognitive abilities, levels of obedience, and familiarity with him. For individuals he knew, Ambrosino would, anonymously, either prey on their friendship or use the information he already had about the individuals and their families to elicit sexually graphic depictions from them. For persons he did not know, Ambrosio would employ alternative methods. For example, Ambrosino would approach certain kids via social media direct messaging, purport to be a social media mogul, and enquire whether the minor wanted “to be Instagram famous.” He would next want a sexually suggestive or sexually explicit photograph to indicate that the child was serious about getting famous or obtaining a gift. Alternately, Ambrosino would provide valuable objects to juveniles, such as a camera, lighting system, sponsorship, or plush animals, as inducements to take and send him sexually explicit photographs and videos, or to engage in sexually explicit activities during a video chat with him. When victims indicated reluctance to furnish him with sexually graphic images or to continue doing so, Ambrosino would extort them by threatening them with harm to their reputation or physical injury. After obtaining sexually explicit content from a victim, Ambrosino demanded progressively explicit, invasive, and humiliating content from his victims. Thereafter, Ambrosino sent some of the sexually graphic depictions he obtained to other individuals in return for the identities of other, future potential victims.

Ambrosino victimized at least eleven people, including nine juveniles ranging in age from ten to seventeen years old, one of whom had a diagnosed developmental cognitive disability and a speech disability. Eight states and Australia were represented among the identified victims.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a countrywide program to tackle the growing pandemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse started in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. The United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) direct Project Safe Childhood, which marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, prosecute, and identify and rescue victims of Internet-based child exploitation. For additional information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

U.S. Attorney Evans applauded the work of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) in investigating this incident, with help from the New York Police Department. U.S. Attorney Evans lauded the efforts of Victim-Witness Coordinator Brandi Calagna and Victim-Witness Specialist Melissa Meunier in this case. The prosecution was administered by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.