Man Who Conspired to Sexually Exploit a Child Pleads Guilty

A man who conspired to sexually exploit a child and who possessed child sexual abuse material pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Benjamin Paul Egli, age 30, from North Liberty, Iowa, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to sexually exploit a child and one count of possession of child pornography.

At court hearings and in a plea agreement, Egli admitted that on multiple occasions in 2023, he used Snapchat to make video calls to another person. In those video calls, at Egli's request, the other person engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a toddler. Egli screen-recorded the sexual conduct and saved those videos on his phone. He also possessed other images and videos of child sexual abuse material on his phone, including images of children performing sexual acts on animals and sadistic and masochistic conduct.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Egli remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Egli faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 50 years' imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, $77,200 in special assessments, and a life term of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Devra T. Hake and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Tipton Police Department, and the Joint Forensic Analysis Cyber Team.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 24-CR-53.

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