Local Man Gets 12 Years in Prison for Child Porn

A Bethlehem Township man who tried to flee the country in 2012 when he realized he was under investigation for child pornography was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison on Monday, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia.

Federal agents found hundreds of images and dozens of videos depicting child pornography on the home computer of Niyaz Sainudeen during a March 8, 2012 search of his home on the 4100 block of Ross Road.

After he was questioned by agents during that search, Sainudeen attempted to flee to his native India, but was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York before he could board an airplane.

In October, Sainudeen pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing child pornography, one count of receipt of child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.

In addition to a sentence of 151 months in a federal prison, U.S. District Court Judge James Knoll Gardner ordered $10,000 restitution, a $400 special assessment and five years of supervised release.

The mandatory minimum sentence in the case was five years in prison, with a possible maximum of up to 70 years.

The investigation began in July 2011, when Sainudeen engaged in a chat session with an undercover agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations. As a result of the chat, Sainudeen gave the undercover agent access to a password-protected folder containing child pornography.

Sainudeen had reportedly been the director of an information technology firm in Bethlehem Township and is an Indian national living in the United States with a valid visa.

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.