GREAT FALLS, Mont. — An 81-year-old Montana man on Monday admitted he received child pornography after a criminal investigation discovered thousands of such images on his computer and electronic storage devices.
This guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme, District of Montana. This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Great Falls Police Department.
Lothar Konrad Krauth, 81, from Great Falls, pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography as charged in an indictment. Krauth faces a minimum mandatory five years to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris set sentencing for July 18, 2019, and continued Krauth’s release.
The prosecution said in court records that on Oct. 10, 2018, HSI special agents in Great Falls received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC reported that the user of an internet provider address in Great Falls had uploaded an image of a nude prepubescent male. The internet address was identified as having been assigned to Krauth.
HSI special agents and Great Falls police officers served a search warrant at Krauth’s residence on Oct. 26, 2018, and seized about 20 items of electronic media, including a desktop computer, nine external hard drives, six thumb drives and other items. Investigators then obtained a warrant to search all the seized electronic media.
A forensic examination of Krauth’s desktop computer found about 400 images of child pornography; a subsequent analysis found thousands more such images. The majority of the discovered child pornography images depicted prepubescent children.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tom Bartleson and Cyndee Peterson, District of Montana, prosecuted this case.
