Grand Rapids, Michigan – February 2, 2006 – United States Attorney Margaret M. Chiara, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announce that on January 31, 2006, Daniel Bryant Simpson, age 21, of St. Joseph, Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gordon J. Quist to 108 months of incarceration, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, for distributing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(2). Mr. Simpson pleaded guilty to the charge on October 21, 2005.

Law enforcement officers and agents with the FBI, acting in an undercover capacity, discovered that Mr. Simpson was trading images of child pornography by using a fileserve ( f-serve). An f-serve is a computer that is setup to permit the exchange of software and files. Agents with the FBI and ICE executed a search warrant on Mr. Simpson’s residence and seized hundreds of images of child pornography.

Investigation of this matter was conducted through the joint efforts of the FBI, ICE, U.S. Army – Criminal Investigative Division, Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department, and Berrien County Sheriff’s Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel Y. Mekaru.