July 31, 2021 - Syracuse, New York – Thomas Sczerbaniewicz, age 53, of Syracuse, was sentenced on July 28, 2021, to serve 120 months (ten years) in federal prison for possessing child pornography. The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his previously entered guilty plea, Sczerbaniewicz admitted that he was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2009, was on supervised release for that offense at the time he committed the current offense in January 2021, and committed the new offense while in the bathroom of his sex offender counseling service using a mobile phone to access the internet and view child exploitation images.

Senior United States District Judge David N. Hurd also sentenced Sczerbaniewicz to four (4) months imprisonment for violating the terms of his supervised release (to be served concurrently with his 120-month sentence) and to a new 15-year term of supervised release to begin following his imprisonment. Sczerbaniewicz also will be required to continue to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Sczerbaniewicz’s case was investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force, comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), after a referral from the United States Probation Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Gadarian as a part of Project Safe Childhood.

Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.