Federal Jury Convicts Bemidji Man of Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material Over the Dark Web

DULUTH, Minn. - A federal jury convicted a Minnesota man for advertising, distributing, and possessing material depicting the sexual abuse of children, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Craig James Myran, 47, of Bemidji, Minnesota, was an active participant on a website on the dark web that was dedicated to discussing and trafficking in child sexual abuse material. For years, Myran used an account with a unique username to make over a thousand posts on this site, including at least one post in which he requested specific files of child sexual abuse material from other users, and another post in which he distributed files of child sexual abuse material to other users. FBI law enforcement agents executed a warrant to search Myran's apartment in Bemidji on Dec. 8, 2022, where they found numerous hard drives and a cell phone. A forensic examination of these devices uncovered evidence tying Myran to his unique account on the dark web site - including files of the child sexual abuse material that he shared and requested on the website, as well as a message directed to his unique alias - and thousands of other images of child sexual abuse material.

A federal jury found Myran guilty yesterday after a three-day trial on two counts of advertising child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.

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 U.S. Attorneys' Offices and 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.justice.gov/psc.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI.

DOJ Trial Attorney William G. Clayman of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Green for the District of Minnesota prosecuted the case.