ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Guy Anthony Wachob, 64, of Leicester, North Carolina, was sentenced to nine years in prison today for distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Wachob was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to register as a sex offender. “There’s a price to pay for convicted sex offenders who exploit children, and that price is prison,” said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. “We have a responsibility to protect children from those who seek to harm them, and we take that responsibility seriously. My office will continue seek lengthy sentences for repeat offenders who pose a threat to children.” “Wachob is a convicted sex offender who distributed horrific child sexual abuse material,” said Mark M. Zito, Special Agent in Charge of HSI Carolinas. “HSI Carolinas and our law enforcement partners will continue to pursue these offenders relentlessly and do everything within our authority to protect children from further harm.”

According to filed court documents and the sentencing hearing, in 2017, Wachob was convicted of Sexual Battery and Assault on a Female. As a result of that conviction, he was required to register as a sex offender. In August 2024, Wachob accessed a chatroom dedicated to the exchange of CSAM and began communicating with an undercover HSI agent. Between August and September 2024, during his communications with the HSI agent, Wachob discussed his sexual interest in young children. Wachob also used an encrypted messaging app to distribute CSAM to the undercover agent, including videos that depicted prepubescent minors being sexually abused. On September 10, 2024, HSI agents, Franklin Police Department officers, and Macon County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Wachob. During an interview with law enforcement, Wachob admitted that he had been sending CSAM to the undercover agent.

Wachob remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until he is transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. In making the announcement U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson commended the HSI Greenville Office, the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, and the Franklin Police Department for their work on this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Benjamin of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ 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.