03/03/2010

News / Florida Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Traveling to the Philippines in Sex Tourism Case

WASHINGTON - Donald Mathias of Davie, Fla., was sentenced today to 20 years in prison for engaging in sex tourism in the Philippines, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jeffrey H. Sloman and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton.

Mathias, 64, was also sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William Peter Dimitrouleas to serve five years of supervised release following his prison term and to pay $200,000 in restitution to his victims. The funds will be transferred to a trust fund established for their benefit. The court also ordered Mathias to forfeit real property in order to satisfy the restitution amount. Mathias pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Dec. 22, 2009, to four counts of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct. He was indicted on those charges on Oct. 27, 2009.

As part of his plea agreement, Mathias admitted that from 2005 until December 2008, he communicated and arranged with the mother of two minor females to travel to the Philippines, where they were located, and engage in sexual conduct with the minors. During this time, Mathias and the mother exchanged hundreds of e-mails regarding sexual activity between Mathias and the minors.

Mathias admitted that he traveled to the Philippines in April 2007 and again in December 2007, engaged in sexual conduct with the minors on those trips and recorded those acts with a video camera. Mathias also admitted that he made the minors sign a contract in December 2007, requiring the minors to be his sex slaves. According to court documents, money transfer and e-mail records showed that Mathias sent thousands of dollars to the mother between 2005 and December 2008. Mathias also admitted that he traveled to the Philippines in December 2008 to engage in sexual conduct with the minors again. However, Filipino law enforcement officials detained Mathias and he was not successful in meeting the minors. On Oct. 14, 2009, Mathias was arrested by U.S. law enforcement officers in Miami.

The mother of the minors is in custody in the Philippines and is being prosecuted by Filipino authorities.

This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Anitha Ibrahim of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Rodriguez of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance in the case. This case was investigated by ICE’s Office of Investigations in Miami and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, with assistance from the Philippines Department of Justice.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/March/10-crm-221.html

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