Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Announces First Known CSAM Cryptocurrency-Involved Arrest in Utah
Salt Lake City – The Utah Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force made Utah’s first known arrest involving the use of cryptocurrency to purchase Child Sex Abuse Material last week.
The Office of the Utah Attorney General charged Christopher Merritt, a 39-year-old Utah resident, with 10 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor following an investigation led by our ICAC Task Force.
Merritt allegedly used cryptocurrency in the form of Bitcoin and Ethereum to acquire CSAM from darknet websites. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a nonprofit organization that works to protect children from exploitation, received a tip from Robinhood, a financial technology company, reporting suspicious transactions.
Robinhood reported that cryptocurrency had been transferred to wallet addresses previously linked to CSAM activity on the dark web.
An agent with the ICAC Task Force traced Merritt’s cryptocurrency transactions. The analysis confirmed that Merritt’s digital wallet allegedly sent funds to wallet addresses identified by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) as being associated with known CSAM sources.
The Office of the Attorney General is committed to finding and prosecuting individuals who exploit children online, regardless of the digital methods used to avoid detection.
The full probable cause statement can be read here.
To report any incidents regarding sexual exploitation of a minor, please contact the Utah ICAC Tip Line at 801-281-1211 or utahicac@agutah.gov.
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