A Saskatchewan man is facing nearly four years in a U.S. federal prison for distributing child sexual abuse material to an undercover FBI agent, according to the Washington D.C. district attorney’s office.
Thirty-two-year-old Matthew Norman Ballek was sentenced on June 30 to 46 months in prison, followed by a six-year term of supervised release after pleading guilty in October to possession of child pornography, the D.C. attorney’s office said in a news release.
Prosecutors say Ballek started communicating with an undercover member of the FBI’s child exploitation task force on an online dating app in January 2024.
The application, which was not named in the release, is sometimes used by those with a sexual interest in children, according to the release.
“Ballek contacted the undercover agent and, believing he was communicating with a pedophile, expressed an interest in child pornography,” the release said.
“Ballek sent the undercover agent three video files via an encrypted messaging application. Those video files depicted adult men raping a toddler and prepubescent boys.”
He was arrested on Feb. 7, 2024 in D.C.
Ballek may soon be subject to deportation proceedings, the U.S. attorney’s office says.
