American sentenced to 50 yrs in prison for exploiting Filipina minor

A man from Tuttle, North Dakota has been sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday after being convicted for exploiting a Filipino child, Valley News Live reported.

Calvin Bernhardt, 54, was found guilty of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, attempted receipt of materials depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, counterfeit currency, tampering with witness or evidence and attempted travel with intent to engage in sexual acts with a minor.

The report said that Bernhardt induced and enticed a 14-year-old Filipina to engage in and produce images of sexually explicit conduct via Internet.

He has also made the minor send him sexually explicit or sadistic and masochistic images.

After the suspect became aware that the police were conducting an investigation against him, he contacted the victim’s mother in the Philippines and instructed her to delete all photos of himself and the minor on the victim’s phone.

According to the report, communications between Bernhardt and the victim revealed that he was trying to arrange a meeting with the minor in a hotel in the Philippines with the intent of engaging in sexual acts with her.

In May 2016, authorities in the Philippines launched an operation resulting in the arrest of the victim’s mother for pimping her daughter to the suspect.

The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations in Bismarck, together with Homeland Security Investigations-Manila, Philippines and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. RAM/rga

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