May 10, 2021 – PHILADELPHIA – Acting United States attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Craig Alex Levin, 65, of King of Prussia, PA, has been charged with replacement charges additional violations of child exploitation in connection with his trip to the Philippines. The defendant, who was previously detained in the Philippines, was returned to the United States in August 2020 and has been in federal detention ever since.
The substitute charge contains sixteen cases including nine cases of interstate and foreign travel for the purpose of illegal sexual behavior with minors, two cases of sex trafficking in minors, and one case of using an interstate trafficking facility to induce minors to engage in sexual activity, two counts for the Distribution of child pornography, a count for the transmission of obscene material to minors and a count for the transport of child pornography.
The indictment alleges that Levin, a former Lower Merion School District high school teacher, created and maintained Facebook accounts that he used to communicate with minors in the Philippines in order to trick them into illegally chatting with him while he was with him Sexually Behaved Visits to the Philippines. In addition, the defendant allegedly used Facebook Messenger to send pictures of minors engaged in sexually explicit behavior and obscene photos of his place of residence to minors in the Philippines. Between August 29, 2016 and May 8, 2019, Levin reportedly traveled to the Philippines nine times to have sex with underage children. Levin was first charged with child exploitation in connection with his trip to the Philippines in February 2020.
“As alleged in the indictment, the defendant repeatedly traveled to the Philippines and stayed for months to sexually persecute children,” said acting US attorney Williams. “If Mr. Levin thought he could get away with these crimes because they were committed on the other side of the world, it was a grave misjudgment on his part. Bringing child sexual predators to justice, including those who travel overseas to commit their heinous deeds, will continue to be our office’s top priority. “
“Craig Levin went to extraordinary lengths to sexually exploit children as alleged in the replacing indictment,” said Michael J. Driscoll, special adviser for the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “He has repeatedly migrated thousands of kilometers to the Philippines and settled there for months to exploit situations of extreme poverty and hunt down underage girls. Child sexual exploitation is abhorrent everywhere, and the FBI will continue to prosecute Americans who travel abroad for the purpose. We are determined to hold them accountable for the damage they have caused and to prevent them from harassing someone else’s child. “
This case was filed under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Justice Department to combat the growing epidemic of sexual exploitation and abuse of children. The Safe Childhood project is led by the United States law firms and the Department of Child Exploitation and Profanity (CEOS) of the Criminal Division, and gathers federal, state, and local resources to better help people who exploit children over the Internet Locate, Capture, and Prosecute Victims Identify and Rescue Victims. For more information on Project Safe Childhood, see www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
If convicted, the defendant faces the highest possible life imprisonment with a compulsory ten-year sentence or more, a life-supervised release, a fine of $ 4,000,000 and a special assessment of $ 1,600, plus an additional mandatory special assessment of $ 75,000.
The case has been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being followed by Assistant US Attorney Sarah Damiani and Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Department of Childhood Exploitation and Profanity at the Department of Justice.
An indictment, information or criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: DOJ
