SCARSDALE MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
CHARGE DURING JURY TRIAL IN FEDERAL COURT

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that LAURENCE F. GORDON, 46, pleaded guilty today, three days into his jury trial, to a charge of receiving child pornography over the internet. GORDON pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court before United States District Judge SAMUEL CONTI. According to the evidence at trial, statements made during GORDON's guilty plea, and documents filed in the case:

From March 2005 until November 9, 2005, GORDON downloaded hundreds of images and dozens of videos of child pornography -- depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children -- from numerous locations on the Internet. These depictions included graphic files that included terms like "rape," "bondage," "preteen," "preteen hardcore," "pedofilia," "PTHC," "lolita," and other sexually explicit terms.

GORDON joined and paid for a membership to a child pornography website called "Hardcore" and "PedoLovers 2004-2005" (collectively, "Hardcore"), which contained thousands of images and videos of child pornography, and from which he downloaded numerous child pornography videos. GORDON also searched for child pornography using search engines and peer-to-peer software.

On November 9, 2005, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") visited the defendant at his midtown Manhattan office as part of a child pornography investigation into members of Hardcore. While the FBI was interviewing a coworker, GORDON attempted to delete the images and videos of child pornography that GORDON had downloaded and saved on his office computer. The FBI successfully recovered the images and files that GORDON attempted to delete.

GORDON is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge CONTI on February 15, 2008. He faces a maximum sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment and a statutory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the FBI and the Suffolk County Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorneys BENJAMIN A. NAFTALIS and JOSHUA A. GOLDBERG are in charge of the prosecution.

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