Ontario Attorney Sagi Schwartzberg Facing Federal Child Porn Charge
RIVERSIDE (CBSLA) — An attorney with a practice in Ontario was taken into federal custody Thursday on a charge of producing child pornography.
Sagi Schwartzberg, 38, of Fontana, was taken into custody by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the San Bernardino County District Attorney dismissed its child exploitation charges against him, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Schwartzberg, who went by "Jason D," "drunkesq_o64" and "xocdrunkx" on social media platforms — is accused to paying a teenage girl to send him sexually explicit images.
The attorney was first arrested Feb. 17 in the state case, approximately three months after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children forwarded a tip from Kik, a mobile messaging application, to the Fontana Police Department.
According to the tip, a person later identified as Schwartzberg had uploaded suspected child pornography to Kik from two locations — later determined to be him home and his law office — in October and November. The FBI then reviewed the videos, one of which depicts a girl who appeared to be under the age of 10 being sexually assaulted, according to court documents.
Following his arrest, Fontana police seized Schwartzberg's phone, which authorities said had a hidden vault containing file folders, labeled with girls' names, one of which contained sexually explicit images and videos of a girl who is now 15 years old, the affidavit alleges.
The girl depicted in the photos said in a later interview with police that she had been solicited by Schwartzberg to send sexually explicit images via Snapchat starting 2019 in exchange for electronic gift cards. The girl also told authorities that Schwartzberg had "asked her to meet up with him for sex but she never agreed to it," according to the affidavit.
Fontana police also identified another victim, now aged 17, who had sent images to Schwartzberg via Snapchat when she was 16. According to the affidavit, the teen sent images, sometimes in response to specific instructions. The affidavit also said authorities had identified at least two other minor victims who also sent images of Schwartzberg.
Schwartzberg was expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon. If convicted as charged, he could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
The case is being investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Fontana Police Department, as part of Inland Regional Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Anyone with information about the case was asked to contact the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office at 310-477-6565.
