A guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to sexual exploitation of children was entered Tuesday by an attorney for the federal bank deposit insurance agency, the agency’s inspector general said.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) Office of Inspector General (OIG), Mark Black, 50, of Arlington, Va., was a member of two online groups dedicated to exploiting children.
In a release, the OIG said court documents show that the goal of the groups was to locate prepubescent girls online and convince them to livestream themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Black and his co-conspirators allegedly would covertly record this conduct and share the videos with each other.
“In July 2019, Black induced a prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct on a live-streaming application while screen-recording that activity,” the OIG said. “That same month, Black and a co-conspirator also groomed another prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit acts on a photo and video-sharing application. The co-conspirator surreptitiously hacked into this girl’s live-video feed and recorded the sexual acts before sending them to Black.”
Black was formerly the Arlington Aquatic Club (AAC) board president, the agency said.
The FDIC attorney pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30 and faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The 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, the OIG noted.
FDIC Attorney Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Sexually Exploit Numerous Children