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Richard Nejame, age 27, of Schenectady, was arraigned in federal court in Albany on Monday, May 1, on charges of sexual exploitation of a child and communicating a threat to injure.
According to the US Attorney’s Office in the Northern District, Nejame chatted with several underage girls through a messaging app between October 2022 and May 2023.
During one exchange, he threatened a 14-year-old Florida girl that “bad people” would come and harm her unless she sent him naked photos of herself, prosecutors allege.
Investigators also determined that he coerced a 15-year-old Virginia girl into taking sexually explicit images and videos of herself, and sending them to him, according to prosecutors.
Nejame was ordered jailed pending a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday, May 3.
If convicted on all charges, he faces between 15 and 30 years in federal prison.
The case is being prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood, a coordinated effort between local, state, and federal agencies to track down individuals who exploit children using the internet.
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