He may not get on the sexual offenders register in the Bahamas – BUT HE WILL MAKE THE LONG LIST IN THE USA!
MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Chrystano Peder Carmelo Cooper, age 22, a citizen of The Bahamas lawfully present in the United States on an F1 student visa, was sentenced to 220 months in prison for four counts relating to the production, distribution, receipt, and possession of child sexual abuse materials. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Cooper will register as a sex offender and be removed from the United States after completing his term of incarceration.
The charges arose from an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations.
On November 14, 2024, Cooper was found guilty by a federal jury of Sexual Exploitation of a Child/Use of a Child to Produce a Visual Depiction, Distribution of Certain Materials Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Receipt of Certain Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor and Possession of Certain Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor at trial.
Between December of 2022 and February of 2024, Cooper, while attending college in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, induced a minor child to create and share sexually explicit images via the internet. According to investigators, federal agents seized Cooper’s cellular telephone during the execution of a federal search warrant, which revealed multiple child sexual abuse materials of the minor victim.
“This sentence is proof that this defendant’s perverse behavior of sexually exploiting a child will not go unpunished,” said Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard Homeland Security Investigations Dallas. “Thanks to a Cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, this child predator will be incarcerated, allowing the minor victim he abused to begin the healing process.”
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to aggressively prosecute those who exploit and victimize children,” said United States Attorney Christopher J. Wilson.
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.justice.gov/psc.
We encourage anyone who suspects or has information regarding child sexual exploitation, trafficking of minors, sextortion, child pornography, or any other means of child exploitation to immediately contact law enforcement. You can file a report through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-843-5678 or online at www.cybertipline.com, through the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or through Homeland Security Investigations at 1-877-4-HSI TIP.
The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing. Cooper will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessie K. Pippin and Jessica Bove represented the United States.
