Arlington Attorney Pleads Guilty To Sexually Exploiting Children

ARLINGTON, VA — An attorney from Arlington pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to sexually exploit children, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Mark Black, 50, a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation attorney, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement.

Black 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 U.S. attorney’s office said.

According to court documents, between January 2018 and October 2021, Black, who is a former president of the Arlington Aquatic Club board, was a member of two online groups dedicated to exploiting children.

The goal of the two groups was to locate prepubescent girls online and convince them to livestream themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to court documents. Black and his co-conspirators would covertly record this conduct and share the videos with each other, court documents said.

In July 2019, Black induced a prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct on a live-streaming application while screen-recording that activity, according to prosecutors. 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,” prosecutors said.

The co-conspirator surreptitiously hacked into this girl’s live-video feed and recorded the sexual acts before sending them to Black, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Federal prosecutors announced the plea agreement on Tuesday after U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema accepted the plea.