Italian National Marco Pagano Has Been Sentenced to Over 26 Years in Prison for International Child Exploitation and Money Laundering
A federal court judge has sentenced Italian national Marco Pagano to 320 months in federal prison. The FBI accused Pagano of using social media and online payments to entice minors around the world to produce and send him sexually explicit images of themselves.
U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman imposed the sentence on Marco Pagano following his guilty plea on February 25, 2025. Prosecutors charged him with charges of child exploitation and promoting international money laundering.
Court documents and statements show Pagano engaged in illegal online exchanges with multiple minor victims. These exchanges included four victims between the ages of 14 and 16 living in the United Kingdom.
Pagano used online payment systems to pay those minor victims to create sexually explicit photographs and videos. Afterwards, the Italian national had them send them to him through a social media application.
Pagano used his online accounts more than 180 times to send money from the United States to the UK. Pagano’s accounts also revealed more than one thousand payments were made in small denominations to victims across the world.
Pagano was also ordered to serve 15 years of supervised release in addition to his prison sentence. The court will determine restitution at a later date.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. It was launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006. Project Safe Childhood also marshals federal, state and local resources to prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
